For the 2025-2026 school year, Rolla High School welcomes a new counselor, Kristi Steelman. She now handles last names Ro-Z and is very excited to start her time here at Rolla.
She wasn’t always a counselor; she started her journey in education as a math teacher.
“I went into education later in life. I was a middle school math teacher for ten years, and then I got the high school counselor position in Salem. Then, this was my twelfth year in education when I transferred here. I’ve been married several years. I have a daughter, and we live in Salem,” Steelman said.
Steelman explained how she was already familiar with a portion of the community of Rolla due to her daughter’s previous participation in a few Ozark Actors Theatre (OAT) productions.
“I’ve heard a lot of really great things about the school district, about the kids, the administration, the community, everything, and the opportunity came open, and I jumped on it,” Steelman said.
It is very important to Rolla High School students that they feel comfortable at school, especially when it comes to visiting the counselor’s office. Steelman wants Rolla High School students to remember one important thing.
“I’m always here. It doesn’t matter if you’re in my alphabet letter; I’ll talk to anybody, and I will always advocate for them no matter what. I grew up in a fairly judgmental household, and I made a decision a long, long time ago that I was going to take people at face value. Everybody’s different, everybody’s unique, everybody you know has their own beat that they go to, and that’s important. Especially to kids, everybody at this age is trying to find themselves and decide who they want to be when they grow up. And I want to be there to help in the best way possible,” Steelman said.
The addition of a fifth counselor also changes a few things around for the counseling center system. For the past 3 years, a majority of seniors have had one of the 4 counselors that corresponded to the first letter of their last name; however, this year, every senior is assigned to Dr. Kaelin. This shift was implemented to make it easier for seniors to get college resources and to distribute the other grade levels between four counselors. This change has sparked mixed reactions. Senior Samarcus Anderson shared how the change has affected him so far in his last year of high school.
“It’s difficult in the time in which they did it …especially on the seniors’ last year,” Anderson said.
While Anderson understands the reason for the shift, he’ll miss the comfort and availability of knowing his counselor.
“I knew my former counselor well, and so I could easily talk to her,” Anderson said.
Others feel the change truly is for the better. Senior Chloe Kissinger shared her opposing opinion.
“I feel pretty positive of the changing counselors. I think the addition of a fifth counselor is going to be very beneficial, especially for this year. I have noticed that the class size just in the high school alone, or just in this freshman class alone, is pretty large, and you can’t imagine the extra burden that is on the counselors, just dealing with all the kids and stuff,” Kissinger said.
Everyone should have someone they feel more comfortable with. This year, some students will need to get to know a new counselor.
“Honestly, I don’t think that’s too much of an impact … For me, it honestly has been a lot easier reaching out to just a counselor that I know is designated for me and my class,” Kissinger said.
The counseling center may be difficult to navigate sometimes, but everyone should feel welcome there, no matter which counselor they’re assigned.
“I know it’s still going to be rough for some other people, I can’t imagine how hectic it is right now, but the counselors are doing the best they can to help all of these students,” Kissinger said.
