Erin Pontikos Q&A

Ky Kalinowski

Reporting Public Policy

11 September 2020

Erin Pontikos Interview

Erin Pontikos is a school counselor and advisor of the Key Club at Rocky River High School in Rocky River, Ohio. Located just outside of Cleveland, Rocky River is one of the most prestigious public-school districts in Ohio. Pontikos not only leads honor students in community service with Key Club but advises students into college admission and leads them through the process to achieve their top school choice.

Ky Kalinowski: With school now taking place online, students lose out on a lot of social maturation, what steps are schools taking to make sure that students are receiving the social benefits of school still?

Erin Pontikos: It’s hard. It’s been hard because as an advisor for a club, I am the Key club advisor and normally everything we do involves being together. Community service things that we normally do, we can’t do, there’s no events to serve at, you can’thave large gatherings. I do know that teachers are trying to usebreakout groups for classroom instruction but necessarily for socialization purposes if that makes sense. As a counseling office we have sent out a social and emotion screencast trying to encourage kids to talk among each other. As far as having a lesson plan regarding socializing, unfortunately right now that kind of falls through the cracks.

Ky Kalinowski: Has there been any worry from colleges regarding admission? Have they been sending increased activity to entice students to attend university?

Erin Pontikos: So I do think this admission season is going to be interesting because I honestly don’t know what to expect and I think colleges are probably going to be more generous than selective because they are hurting too as well. Most state schools have gone ‘test-optional’, River was actually one of the lucky districts who got a grade-based ACT in February. So you don’t have to give any ACT, any SAT, you just submit your transcripts and they are up to standard then you are accepted. Most of the big state schools in Ohio have gone to this system and even Ohio State has as well. A school that is struggling that might not have as many resources as River there are some students that can’t even get an ACT test in because they all were cancelled and that way so that students are penalized they are going test optional. Which I think helps the student, and I am wondering if post-COVID the emphasis on testing will be different because I have had kids who were awesome and had great transcripts but because of one day on a test they looked like they don’t have a high test score.

Ky Kalinowski: How will extracurricular activities and such be running, being that RR is so competitive? 

Erin Pontikos: As far as extracurriculars go, we are doing as much as we can. As Key club advisor I can say that we are still meeting, we are just meeting virtually. Obviously, there are some things, such as our annual fashion show fundraiser that we are unable to do but we have worked to try and make things run as routinely as possible. As far as affecting resumes, I think colleges will be understanding and be able to generally see if a student was or wasn’t involved.

Ky Kalinowski: How are students being taken care of mentally and physically with things such as students who received free lunches, etc?

Erin Pontikos: The feeling in the fall has kind of fallen to the wayside but they are still having breakfast and free lunch program, you can come to the high school and get it and get anything you may need foodwise but I don’t know necessarilythat it is the same feel as the spring where it was “hey this is a pandemic and we are all in this together and were helping out.”

Ky Kalinowski: Are students without WiFi or the like supported?

Erin Pontikos: We handed out hotspots, Chromebooks and any other technical needs that they may have, River met them. In some school districts where funding might not be as good as it is here, I know there were events put on by corporations, I know AT&T had an event where they gave away Chromebooks but fortunately for us we did not require that assistance.