Retiring counselor continuing legacy of guidance

Cathy Brown will retire from counseling at Ottawa High School, but she won’t stop counseling area high school students.

Brown will begin a newly created part-time counselor position at the district’s alternative school this fall.

Currently, students who attend the alternative school must come to the high school to obtain guidance.

 Next semester, however, they will have not only a resident counselor, but also new job shadowing and career opportunities.

Brown, who has worked at the high school for 30 years, will retire from Ottawa High School in early June. She will be suceeded by Janay Blome, a counselor at Santa Fe Trail High School in Overbrook.

Ryan Cobbs, who has worked with Brown for seven years and is assistant principal of the high school, said a counselor has been needed at the alternative school for a long time.

He said the students there needed to be shown they had post secondary education options.

“With Cathy out there, I don’t see how we can fail,” Cobbs said.

Brown said when many of the alternative school students graduate they do not have always have a complete plan for their lives. That’s something she wants to change.

“Hopefully, they’ll go to a technical school or trade school instead of just being out on the street,” she said. “They’ll have skills.”

Cindy Mars, a close friend of Brown’s who has been the school registrar for 15 years, said many alternative school students face challenges other than finishing school, like parenthood. Mars said Brown could advise them on those problems, too.

“I think she’s really helped a lot of kids who wouldn’t make it,” Mars said.

Brown said she would miss the students at the high school and their parents. She still remembers when current students’ parents attended the high school and refers to the parents as her kids as well.

Cobbs, who was a childhood friend of Brown’s son, said Brown was a second mother to him. He said she never told him what he wanted to hear, only what he needed to hear.

“That’s one of her most endearing qualities,” he said.

He said Brown deserved to retire more than anyone else at the high school because she has done so much for the school.

“We’re really not going to completely understand how much she did for us until she leaves, and we have to pick up the slack,” Cobbs said.

He said he would still rely on her even after she left.

Brown said she would still see her former students around town, as she does not plan to move out of Ottawa in the near future.

One group of children Brown is looking forward to seeing more of by retiring is her grandchildren. Brown will spend her free time with her 12 grandchildren and pursuing relaxing activities like gardening and reading.

“It will just be nice to be able to do what I want to, when I want to,” Brown said.

She is especially excited to visit her daughter next month in Tulsa, Okla., for the birth of her granddaughter.