Hannibal native wins Mo. counseling award

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Cassie Good, of Blue Springs, Mo., has been named by the Missouri School Counselor Association as 2026 Missouri School Counselor of the Year.

Good was honored during the organization’s 2026 Fall Conference Nov. 8-10 in St. Charles.

Cassie (Ukele) Good is a Hannibal native, a 2008 graduate of Hannibal High School.

The road to this recognition began a few years ago, when she was a school counselor for Missouri’s Fort Osage School district. “This district serves one of the state’s largest Section 8 housing complexes,” Good said.

“I noticed there were attendance disparities at Indian Trails Elementary,” she said. “I found that 68 percent of students with chronic attendance concerns, lived in that (Section 8) housing community; although that community represented only 28 percent of our school population.

"What we did, we improved our relations with the families through individualized support and family partnership. We conducted home visits and I created the attendance buddy program, connecting students with a trusted adult (at the school) who could remain part of their support system throughout elementary school.”

In addition, “I also recognized the importance of celebrating families for their role in improving  attendance, and addressed barriers with compassion rather than judgement.

“The outcome in my sample group, all students improved their attendance compared to the previous year. School-wide we had a 25 percent decrease in students missing 15 or more days; and increased our overall attendance rate by 1.8 percent.”

To accomplish this, “I worked hand-in-hand with our principal and the social worker on the school staff.”

A complicating issue in this scenario is that the housing community is located five miles from the school where the students are enrolled. 

“This population often did not own cars, so if (the students) miss the bus, they miss school, basically. Relationships are hard with this community; they don’t have transportation to come to school events. It is a bridge that we continuously tried to build with this community.”

Recognition

“My program at Indian Trails received state recognition back in 2019-2020,” Good said, winning the Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) Award from the American School Council Association. “It received national recognition in 2020; I got to go to Las Vegas for a gala and dinner. My program was the first elementary school in the state of Missouri to receive national recognition.

“Now I help other school counseling programs achieve national recognition. It started in 2023 with an infinity group, helping other school counselors. Since then I’ve helped nine schools receive national recognition for their school counseling program.”

New district

Good is currently serving in her second year at William Yates Elementary, in Kansas City’s Blue Springs District.

She brought her attendance-promoting strategies with her to the new school, and with the help of a co-counselor, has added new encouragements in order to boost school attendance.

“We saw our attendance dwindling and we wanted to do something about it.

“My current school has lots of celebrations, lot of positive reinforcements for improved attendance.”

For example, they implemented: “Do-not be gone.”

“Every week we look at the school-wide attendance. All of the students who have 100 percent attendance during the week, on Friday their names are put in for a drawing for a donut. We select 12 random students to receive a donut on Friday.”

Another initiative is accompanied by lights and music. “We celebrate monthly perfect attendance. We go to each classroom with the “whoop whoop cart,” and the students can pick a prize or a snack off the cart. It is a whole show.”

The payoff is gratifying.

“When we look at the data and the improvement in attendance from last year to this year, it is pretty impressive,” she said.

“My co-counselor is a master mind for all these fun ideas; we came up with the ‘Do-not’ idea and it spread from there.

“It all ties together. When they’re not here, they’re not learning. The more they’re here, the more they feel like they belong.”

“Do-not be gone.  It’s not about donuts, it’s helping students, it is about removing barriers, building connections, making sure every student has a reason to show up and feel like they belong. Using something small to create meaningful change.”

Inspiration

Cassie Good comes by her dedication to education naturally, as the daughter of long-time Hannibal educator, Pamela Day Ukele.

“Mom taught for 28 years,” primarily at Eugene Field Elementary. “I admired her passion to teach. She had perseverance. If she ever had a challenge, she always figured out how to solve it, overcome it. She never let a problem just sit. She always had the drive to make sure things were figured out.”

Pam, who died in 2020, lived to see her daughter achieve honors for her own dedication to education.

“She was alive when my program first received national recognition,” Good said. “And one of our final conversations was when I was completing my educational specialist degree. I was sitting with her in the hospital when I submitted my last assignment.

She shared that news with her mother.

“Hipp hipp,” Pam said.

“And I said hooray. And we said it again.

“I left that night, and that was my last conversation with my mom. I know she is super proud of me.”

Education

Cassie utilized the Missouri’s A+ program in order to obtain an associate degree from Moberly Area Community College. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College and a master’s degree from Stephens College in Columbia. She earned an Educational Specialist degree from the University of Central Missouri.

In addition to her work at Blue Springs, she is a graduate adjunct professor, teaching school counseling courses at Avila University.