“A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints.”
Welcome to the 2023-2024 school year! For those of you who do not know me, I am Lori Schierts, SHOJ school counselor. I have been a school counselor for 12 years and this will be my 4th year here at Sacred Heart. Being a counselor in a Catholic school has been one of the best decisions of my life, and getting to work with the remarkable staff here at SHOJ has allowed me to grow as a person, a professional, and has challenged me to put Christ in the center of the counseling program. I look forward to focusing my lessons and individual and small groups with students on healthy habits that grow our virtues. School counselor, Julie Weipert, will be joining me this semester. I will be here Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and she will be here on Tuesdays and Fridays while I support my high school daughter at home with her medical treatments that should be complete in November. I plan to be back full time next semester. Both Ms. Weipert’ s and my contact information are below. We are both eager to support our SHOJ students with any of their social and emotional needs this school year. As social and emotional resources in the building, we visit with students daily, often with minor concerns to support and encourage them through their school day. However, we commit to contacting you if we have visited with your child and believe that his or her concern warrants parent communication. Please reach out to either or both of us anytime with any questions or concerns you are having.
Ms. Weipert and I will be going into each classroom monthly for counseling lessons. These lessons will address important topics such as friendship, anxiety, bullying, and conflict resolution while using virtuous behavior as our guide. In the months of August and September, we will be focusing on educating all students with the Virtus Protecting God’s Children Program lessons. The Virtus programs focus on preventing child abuse within the Church and society in general. The lessons come directly from the Virtus program and are in line with Catholic teachings as well as being age appropriate for each grade level. If you prefer to tackle these topics with your child instead, please fill out and send the "opt out" form to your child's teacher. You can find the form under the documents tab in the counselor's folder.
I look forward to joining forces with you, the primary educators of your students, as we learn and grow in character and virtue. May God bless our journey this school year as we try to live by the words of Patrick Coffin, host of Catholic Answers Live on ETWN, “Be a saint! What else is there?"