Edmond’s Sunset Elementary counselor earns national praise
EDMOND — Sunset Elementary School counselor Kenneth Elliott nearly gave up a career in schools. Instead, he swapped a job in the classroom for one guiding students who are struggling there.
Elliott, 53, will be hon- ored in Washington as one of the nation’s six best school counselors. The top winner, an elementary counselor from Georgia, and the others will be recognized in February by the American School Counselor Association.
While he is there, Elliott will meet with lawmakers and participate in a congressional briefing.
“I get to make a significant difference in students’ and families’ lives in small but also in profound ways,” said Elliott, who balks at the spotlight. “There is a dark side of trauma invisible to many people that counselors deal with daily.”
Elliott won the Oklahoma Elementary School Counselor of the Year Award in 2011.
He said the nearly 2,000 school counselors in Oklahoma are on the front lines helping make a difference.
Classroom work
Though often perceived as the school workers who help children pick out classes or talk to them about behavioral problems, counselors also tackle domestic abuse, alcohol and drug issues, trauma, poverty and homelessness affecting students and their families.
“I want people to admire what counselors do,” he said. “I admire them and all of their hard work, sense of mission and purpose.”
Elliott’s work in a school setting came in fits and starts.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of New Hampshire, Elliott tried his hand at teaching. Daunted by the difficulty of classroom instruction, he returned to school and received his master’s degree in counseling from Notre Dame College in 1987.
From there, Elliott’s career shifted primarily to marriage and family counseling until, while working in Germany with his wife, he took another try at teaching in 1997.
He loved it. So the licensed clinical social worker, certified domestic violence counselor, marital and family therapist, and suicide prevention specialist switched gears when he moved back to the U.S. in 1998. He started teaching again.
Elliot spent a year as a teacher in Oklahoma City Public Schools. He became a school counselor there in 2000, then took a counseling position with Edmond schools in 2002.
Since then, he’s helped implement evidencebased suicide prevention curriculum in 55 school districts, started programs to help hungry and underprivileged children in the district who need food and school supplies, and is involved in community outreach seminars, addressing topics such as protect- ing children from sexual abuse, raising children in single-parent homes and the correlation between violence and male identity.
His most recent academic article, “Childhood Observers of Domestic Violence,” examines how the school community plays an important role in intervening in cases of domestic violence.
Changing, saving lives
It wasn’t only Elliott’s resume that supported his nomination. The School Counselor of the Year awards program was open to all 100,000 members of the school counseling profession, said Jill Cook, assistant director at the American School Coun- seling Association.
She said the top six school counselors were nominated by their peers and administrators and judged by a panel of educational leaders and school counselors.
“The candidates were judged on several criteria, including: creative school counseling innovations, effective counseling programs, leadership skills, and contributions to student advancement,” Cook said via email.
One letter of recommendation sent to the selection board was from a mother whose family life was helped by Elliott. She was able to get out of a violent marriage that was causing behavioral prob- lems for her children.
“My sons needed a gentle giant, they needed to know that men don’t have to be mean, talk loud or hit people to be an authority ... Ken may not realize it, but he’s probably changed my family for generations.”
A peer and a co-worker wrote additional praises for Elliott. But he wants the focus on the profession, not his career.
“These positions are being cut, and there is nobody in the schools who have the clinical background to fill the void,” he said. “It’s not about being a good teacher or principal, it’s about good, strong clinical school counseling training that can and does save lives.”