Carolyn Beeler is retiring this month after 11 years in the BHS guidance department.

Prior to working in Beachwood, Beeler had already been guiding students for years. She worked as the Director of Guidance at Holy Name High School for five years before coming to BHS, and had jobs in other high schools before that. She’s been a school psychology assistant, and has worked in Cleveland Scholarships Programs, now known as College Now Greater Cleveland, helping students prepare for college.

Even though she’s had all these jobs around students, Beeler has never been a teacher. She has worked in areas that help students develop academic goals and carry them out.

“I was always invested in people and helping kids go further in their lives,” Beeler said.

When asked what her biggest challenge has been as a BHS guidance counselor, she said: “Time.”

“It’s not uncommon to work to ten or eleven at night and leave the school then,” Beeler said.

Despite the large amount of effort she puts into her job, Beeler has insists that she loves working at BHS.

“What I felt most from the families, the students and the administration is real support, and when you have that kind of support you can do a good job,” Beeler said.

When asked what she was proud of, Beeler said she has a big box of thank-you letters from former Beachwood kids and their parents.

“That to me is what makes this job exciting, to see how the kids go on…You have big miracles and little miracles, and the beauty is that (the students) stay in touch,” Beeler said.

“[My goal has been to make] students independent of me, and [to give] them the skills to be able to make good decisions for themselves,” Beeler said.

Beeler remarked on how great of a district Beachwood is, and how she enjoys working with the kids.

“You’ve got wonderfully smart kids whose parents encourage them to do everything….people who want to know how to make the most of their lives. It’s not like you’re trying to save them in a school district that doesn’t care so much about kids, where kids get lost–that doesn’t happen here,” Beeler said.

“Teachers work like crazy to keep kids on task; they don’t give up on the kids, we don’t either. That’s what makes this district work,” she said.

Beeler will continue to work after her retirement.

“I’m not abandoning counseling, I’m just going into private counseling. I know too much and I like it too much,” Beeler said.

Jared Williams, a senior who’s had Beeler for four years, talked about what he would miss about her.

“The fact that she actually wanted to help her students, and help us get to college. She was very concerned for me, there were many points where we both knew that I wasn’t on the ball and she helped me up”, said Williams.

“Mrs. Beeler would always look out for me. She’d always present me opportunities that other teachers wouldn’t. I really appreciated that she would go out of her way to actually help out and try to understand who I really am,” said junior Samantha Tall.

Tall’s sister, freshman Jessica Tall, has only had one year with Beeler, but has already found traits in her that she would miss: “Her organization and her kindness. She was always really nice to me, even though I had no idea what was going on in the school,” she said.

“I will miss the kids the most. They keep you young. They keep you thinking,” Beeler said.