Milton Elementary earns state honor for school counseling

Milton Elementary is one of five state schools and the only one in Sussex County to receive Delaware's Sapphire Award for excellence in school counseling.

This state recognition, in its fifth year, recognizes school counseling programs that are comprehensive, data-informed and designed to serve all students. 

The Sapphire Award is open to all Delaware public school districts and charter schools. School counseling programs must be implemented by a state-certified school counselor. Each school program uses classroom lessons and counseling to support the success of its students, said Secretary of Education Mark Holodick.

“These schools have shown their commitment to students by providing high-quality school counseling services,” Holodick said. 

Mindy Adams, Milton Elementary’s first school counselor and the current Delaware School Counselor Association School Counselor of the Year, said the recognition shines a well-deserved light on Milton Elementary. 

“It’s a great thing for MES,” she said. “Milton is the only school in Sussex to receive this award.”

Every school counselor completes a rigorous school counseling plan, she said, which evaluates academic, behavior and attendance data and trends to guide counseling, support and interventions. 

“The plan focuses on data and how to support it,” Adams said.

Such interventions include individual and group counseling sessions, and classroom lessons on problem solving, regulating emotions, testing strategies and life skills. By reviewing baseline data after interventions, Adams said she can tell interventions are making a difference.

Attendance groups have been very beneficial in determining student barriers for attending school, which could include anxiety or medical reasons, Adams said. Giving students jobs and responsibilities in the classroom is a way to build up school as a good place to be, where they are needed and connected, she said.

A former Lewes Elementary school counselor, Milton Elementary Assistant Principal Jason Scott said Adams’ interventions have changed behaviors in the school, with the end goal being student success.

Milton Elementary Principal Clara Conn said Adams’ plan has led to decreased referrals, or write-ups, for behavior. Adams counsels staff on interventions to use, Conn said, such as mindfulness breathing techniques and calm-down corners where students can take a moment to collect themselves in each classroom.

One fun and competitive way to boost learning and decrease behavior issues has been the implementation of school houses in the style of Harry Potter. All staff and students were sorted into different houses to help build relationships across campus while fostering safety, perseverance, creativity, responsibility and kindness, Conn said.

“So, even a kindergartener can have a relationship with a fifth-grader,” she said.

To Adams, making connections, forming building-wide relationships and fostering collaboration have been a motto as she works to help students succeed. When a school-wide announcement let staff and students know that Adams had won the state award, her house was super excited, she said

“I choked up,” she said. “It was a goal achieved, and I love it was for Milton, our hidden gem in Cape.”

Cape Superintendent Bob Fulton noted the district has been working diligently to put various supports in place to meet student needs.

“Mrs. Adams has truly gone above and beyond at Milton Elementary,” Fulton said. “Her dedication to the students and her desire to see them succeed both in and out of the classroom is unmatched. We are incredibly proud of the hard work she and the team at Milton Elementary have put into making the counseling program at the school a success.”

As a Delaware award winner, Milton Elementary automatically receives the American School Counselor Association’s Recognized ASCA Model Program award at ASCA’s conference this summer in Long Beach, Calif., Adams said.

In addition to Milton Elementary, the 2024-25 Sapphire Award schools are Lake Forest Central Elementary, Lake Forest School District; Anna P. Mote Elementary, Red Clay Consolidated School District; Polytech High School, Polytech School District; and Sarah Pyle Academy, Christina School District.