The Counseling and College & Career Readiness Department at Deer Park Jr./Sr. High School seeks to assist students and families by providing supportive services and post-high school planning.
These services support the areas of social-emotional development, student academics, and College/Career Readiness (CCR) and planning.This site will provide our students and families with various tools to help navigate a students' education through 7th - 12th grade and beyond.
Please use the links below and to the right to learn more.If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your students' CCR school counselor.
Important Dates
- School is out for the summer! Be safe!
Summer Hours
As the school year comes to a strange close, we wanted to take a moment to first thank all of our students and parents for their help in making the best of this tough situation. Second, we wanted to make you aware that the guidance department will be open until approximately the 1st of June. If you have questions about grades, schedules, and/or summer school, please reach out to us prior to June 1st. After that, we will largely be unavailable and will be responding to emails from time to time over the course of the summer. As such, if you are experiencing a mental health or safety concern during the summer, or if you have a concern about another student, please make sure you do the following:
Students: It is important that you speak directly and immediately to an adult you trust who will listen and get the help needed. Speak to a parent, grandparent, aunt, close family friend, etc. and encourage them to help you utilize the suggestions and resources below. If you are unable to speak with an adult, please use the resources below.
Parents and Students: If the concern is about your child or another student, please reach out to the parent of the concerned student if possible. Otherwise, contact 911 and/or utilize the community resources listed below.
LOCAL NUMBERS: When in doubt, contact 911
- Talbert House Crisis Line (Hamilton County): Call 513-281-2273 or text Talbert to 839863
- Hamilton County: 513-281-CARE (2273)
- Hamilton County Text Line: 839863 and text 4hope
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital: (513) 636-4125 or HERE for Mental Health Resources
- The Children's Home: Call: 513-272-2800 or at https://www.thechildrenshomecinti.org/
NATIONAL NUMBERS
- Suicide Hotline: 1-800-273-8255
- Crisis Text Line: text "HELLO," "START," or "HOME" to 741741
- National Crisis Hotline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or say "Suicide Resources" to Siri on Apple Products
- 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text 4hope to 741 741.
- Safe Schools Tip Line: Call or text 1-844-723-3764
- The Nation Alliance for Mental Illness: https://www.nami.org/#
- Nation Suicide Prevention Lifeline: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/help-yourself/
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: https://www.samhsa.gov/
Latest News:
Return to this screen for updated info on job postings, events and HS counseling news
What's New!
Junior High Course Selection: Due to recent events, scheduling for electives for next year's 7th and 8th graders will be done mainly online. To see the options for your student for next year, please click on these links to view the 7th Grade or 8th Grade course selections forms; please ignore the deadlines regarding the foreign language applications. After reviewing these forms, parents and students will need to first complete this Google Form. This will record for us what electives your student would like to take next year and will email back a copy of what was selected. The next step would be to enter the requests into the online scheduler. This can be done at Daslpublic.hccanet.org. To access this site, please contact Amy McKnight at mcknight.a@dpccsd.org or Jason Spelic at spelic.j@dpccsd.org to get your access code. Thank you for your help and understanding!
Latest Graduation Newsletter: Click HERE to read the latest newsletter from the guidance departments. This has very important information for seniors and their parents!
High School Level Scheduling: Parents, please know that scheduling for next year’s courses will be starting in a few weeks. This process includes presentations by the counselors, opportunities to meet and ask questions, acquiring signatures for honors and AP level courses, and completing an online course selection. A final individual meeting takes place later in the spring to go over open bells, courses that didn’t schedule, etc. Please be on the lookout for further information.
Freshmen: The 9th graders will soon be receiving a letter regarding an upcoming field trip. On March 11th, the freshmen students will travel to Cincinnati State to visit the Clifton Campus. Students will also travel to the Duke Energy Convention Center for the Junior Achievement INSPIRE career fair. At INSPIRE, our students will be on the floor of the convention center interacting with employers from the Cincinnati area and taking part in hands-on activities related to these fields. Please be on the lookout for this letter as it will have the permission slip on the back!
In Case You Missed It!
Unity Month - Bullying Prevention: October is generally recognized as Bullying Prevention Month, but this is an issue we should focus on all year long! HERE is just a short list of resources and suggestions that we ask you to review and discuss with your student! Thank you!
ACT Opportunity at Deer Park: There is an opportunity for juniors and seniors to take the ACT on October 1st at Deer Park High School. The deadline to pay is Monday, August 26th at 8:10am.The cost is $45. Interested students should sign up in the counseling office with Mrs. Vickrey. There are limited tests, so sign up early!
Jr High Cell Phones: As you may already know, all 7th and 8th grade students are asked to keep their cells phones in their lockers. As a result of this, discipline related to cell phone usage has decreased tremendously. Please click HERE to read about how you at home can set up an effective cell phone contract with your child that may keep them safe from cyber bullying and/or from committing acts of cyber bullying.
ID Project (Be the Difference)!
Coming up in Oct., our 7th and 8th grade students will take part in the program The ID Project. This program identifies disrespect, stereotyping, and bullying as the main causes negatively impacting middle and high school climate and seeks to help our students grow through a day of fun activities, presentations, and learning about each other. The program from Changepoint Learning is designed to give adolescents key tools that will serve them lifelong. The primary emphasis will be Self-Leadership focusing on the following: SMART Action Goals and SMART Action Plans, Future Self (focusing on personal values and who each one desires to become), Time Management (utilizing the metaphors of Four Quadrants/Big Rocks), Key Behaviors of Leadership, Qualities of Character . The program does involve learning about the challenges and hardships that others have gone through and students are given the opportunity to share their experiences if they are willing. While we hope that all students will participate, you may choose to OPT OUT if you do not wish for your child to participate. If you have any questions or wish to OPT OUT, you can contact Jason Spelic at 936-4652 or by email.
Youth Mental Health First Aid: This was a great training, but did you miss this? A future training may be held on how to spot the warning signs of depression and suicide in youth. Click HERE for the flier and be on the lookout for further info!
Drug Misuse Community Forum: The DP CATS (Coalition Advocating Teen Success) and Prevention 1st hosted a community forum this week. If you missed it and are interested in helping out with either After Prom or hosting a parent meeting, please contact us at 891-0010. Please click HERE to see the presentation on prevention and HERE take a community readiness survey. Thank you.
TLC: Attention 7th and 8th grade parents - Thriving Learning Communities continues for our Jr High students! We know that students are more successful when they are able to identify and utilizes their strengths. Next week, your student should take the Strengths Explorer survey, so please ask about their top 5! Click HERE for a recent newsletter and HERE for a video about how strengths can assist your student!
Super Saturday Programming: If you are a parent of a gifted student, please check out these enrichment courses for students ages 4 -14! An informational brochure was sent home with your student this week and a list of courses can be found HERE.
Deer Park Public Library Events. Click on the following links to learn about some fun events:
Vaccination News: Click HERE for some important information from the Cincinnati Health Department.
New Scholarship Search Engine: Click HERE to try this option from LendEDU.
Social Media and Depression: Click HERE to read an article from the Prevention Action Alliance that connects the two.
Substance Abuse and Bullying
Click HERE to be taken to DrugRehab.com to learn about the links between the two.
Lindner Center Opportunities
The Lindner Center for Hope offers many counseling groups to parents and students. See a list here.
Prevention Action Alliance
This organization, founded 30 years ago by a group of Ohio parents, seeks to raise awareness about the dangers of drug and alcohol misuse. Read their recent newsletter here, KNOW! Visit their website.
New to DP?
Please contact your student's CCR counselor for a course selection form. You can access our Academic Course Planner here.
February Was Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month
Help us to get need info and resources out to our students. Go here for more resource information and read an information booklet on Project AWARE here.
College Credit Plus
Letter of Intent. Get a copy here and turn in to Ms. Madden
Graduation Information
The Ohio Department of Education would like to share some information re: graduation options. Please check out the information here.
Surviving the Teens - Suicide Prevention Information
If you missed the presentation by Cathy Strunk, RN, from the Psychiatry Department of CHMC, and would like more information about this program, please go to the Children's Hospital Medical Center website.
CCR Information
Deer Park Junior/Senior High school continues to utilize Naviance as the focal point of our College and Career Readiness Program. You can find the Naviance link by going here and you'll find it under Quick Links. Ask your student to log in and show you all that they've done!
Scholarship Tips
Check out this page for help on how to write for scholarships!
Women in STEM
Check out some interesting info here! Possible scholarship opportunity!
Accredited Colleges Data Based
Search here for a list of 3,539 accredited learning institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and other accreditation agencies.
Career in Medicine?
TAP MD’s mission is to seek and find “untapped” talented high school students to increase the number of future Tristate physicians, throughout the Greater Cincinnati area including both urban and rural regions. Info can be found at Cincinnati MD Jobs website.
FAFSA help?
Check out http://studentaid.ed.gov/.
CCP
Interested in info about College Credit Plus? Click on the link to the left or go here for UC's Main info page.
Visits to Colleges & Universities (+ Other Opportunities!)
Ohio colleges and universities are having special programs for students and families to get to know their programs better. Colleges also send reps to school to present to our students. Please check Naviance for the 2019 list.
Web Articles About Jobs and Learning
Check out these recent online articles for some interesting facts about social media and our thoughts about learning, especially math.
- A New York Times Article re: Social Media
- A Yahoo Finance Article re: Learning & Math
- U.S. News and World Report/Yahoo! Finance - "Best Jobs of 2014." If you ever needed a reason to pursue education after high school, this story gives you plenty.
- Read an article about the regional indicators re: careers in the future.
- Read an article about the top 10 disappearing jobs in the US.
Scholarship Info
Parents and Students,
Students receive information on current scholarships via their Naviance Family Connections account. Their account is the most updated reference point. If you are curious as to what is available, please ask your student to log in with you.
Note: Scholarships are available via Deer Park Board of Education. Interested seniors can obtain copies from Mr. Hubbard or Ms. Madden.