Curtis Menke

An influx of people have flowed into the College and Career Center in the past weeks. This time, it is not students seeking advice. It is the teaching staff of MCHS that needs someone to talk to. Not only is the College and Career Counselor Curtis Menke helping students plan their futures, he is helping teachers process the present. 

The feeling of being burnt out is becoming more of a commonplace for MCHS staff members. Even a counselor like Menke who doesn’t have multiple classes and isn’t seeing over 100 kids in a day is feeling worn down and burnt out. 

“This has been a tough school year.” Menke states. “It’s kind of a perfect storm of several things happening at once and any one of these would be difficult to manage.” Things like the shift in school, a global pandemic, and the current political climate only seek to exacerbate the stress of the situation many teachers and counselors are placed in.  

“I could not imagine being a classroom teacher trying to manage the new, the change, the struggles of everything that goes along with what classroom teachers have to do.” Menke states. Though he is also able to note that no matter how much his colleagues struggle they will always do their job to the best of their ability even if they are feeling burnt out.