Adolescent Counseling services is a non-profit agency that has provided counseling services to the Palo Alto and Menlo Park-Atherton communities for 30 years.  ACS has been on the MA campus for 13 years. At MA, ACS has a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and five interns.  We offer crisis intervention, individual, group, and family counseling free of charge to any MA student. Some of the issues we see include: academic stress, parental communication, peer conflicts, depression, anxiety, law violation, and drug and alcohol issues.

Visit Adolescent Counseling Services at http://www.acs-teens.org/

After school tutoring is available for all students in the library three days per week.  It is staffed by a certificated teacher with the assistance of two volunteer parents and numerous peer tutors.  Students can come on a drop-in basis or can arrange a permanent, one-on-one, consistent tutoring situation.  The staff is bilingual.  Computers are readily available.  There is a sign-in/sign-out procedure to document student participation, especially for teachers and parents.

Algebra Recovery is an after school partnership with West Ed designed to support students who have not completely mastered the Algebra I standards.  Students participate on a voluntary basis, several days per week after school.  Students can self-refer or are referred y their Algebra I teacher so that they can get help specifically on the Algebra I standards in which they are deficient.  Successful completion of Algebra Recovery can raise their grade in the Algebra I course.

Under the Outreach Club umbrella is the Conflict Mediation Program where students parents, or staff can request mediation. If anyone in the school community has a dispute, trained students can help them reach a resolution. If the problem includes a staff member, the coordinator assists in the mediation Conflict Mediation encourages effective communication, problem solving and decision making skills.

The Health Aide renders first aid to pupils, provides emergency care. and maintains a cumulative health and immunization record for all students. In addition, she helps students to obtain healthcare and access community health systems.

Office Hours are 7:30-3:45 Monday thru Friday.

The District nurse is on site every Tuesday from 8AM-2:30 PM.

She conducts all Vision and Hearing Screenings.  She also assists in identifying and following up on any and all students who may have a chronic, acute or latent health problem which may impair the learning process.

Finally, the District Health Clinic comes every Thursday to help connect students to more in-depth health services.  The Student Health Clinic is available to all SUHSD students and is located on the Sequoia High School campus.  The outreach done on by the clinic to reach students at M-A reminds them that there is additional health services available.

Peer Counseling is a 10-unit elective course offered within the school day.  It is focused on modifying student behavior and teaching empathy and understanding.  Student study issues relating to drugs and alcohol, violence, defiance, communication and understanding.  Students participate in service activities and engage lots of guest speakers.

The Phoenix Program (NovaNET System) is a computer-based, online learning system linking educators with progressive technology and proven teaching methods.  It is the culmination of more than 35 years of educational research and technological development begun at the University of Illinois.

NovaNET lessons are self-paced and an ideal way to accelerate the acquisition of basic skills, reduce dropout rated, improve student achievement, prepare students for state and standardized tests, and provide the curricular foundation for local credit accrual or recovery.  Course offerings are also aligned with the California State Standards.

The Student Support Fund is also included under the Outreach Umbrella. Much needed funds donated by the community to Outreach are allocated to meet the needs of other students. Services include gift cards for food and clothing, bus passes, PE uniforms, paid fees for school needs, book fees, help with household and medical expenses, and any other expense that will help the student feel supported and cared for.

This job is currently held by a trained counselor with a full time position to make available all community service opportunities for students. This person also brings to our school outside resources for students needing assistance in their lives.   The support coordinator has created effective partnerships with community-based organizations at our school and works with outside groups to plan service events at our school.  The coordinator of Support and Community Service has a centralized location for all support services, clubs, and community service opportunities.   Students at our school know exactly where to go to find service opportunities and links to inside clubs and outside CBO's.