{"id":1313661,"date":"2019-08-17T18:50:56","date_gmt":"2019-08-18T00:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=986003"},"modified":"2019-08-17T18:50:56","modified_gmt":"2019-08-18T00:50:56","slug":"sunday-profile-feeling-a-calling-sopris-elementary-counselor-megan-rentz-is-ready-for-the-first-day-of-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/sunday-profile-feeling-a-calling-sopris-elementary-counselor-megan-rentz-is-ready-for-the-first-day-of-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Profile: Feeling a calling, Sopris Elementary counselor Megan Rentz is ready for the first day of school"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Megan Rentz is the school counselor at Sopris Elementary. (Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent)<\/strong>
<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Sopris Elementary School Counselor Megan Rentz has three words tattooed on her wrist: \u201cSo it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The quote that appears repeatedly in Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s novel \u201cSlaughterhouse-Five\u201d following instances of death, pays tribute to Rentz\u2019s freshman high school English teacher Tom Horton, who died of alcoholism in 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the one who taught us that every story that we read was someone\u2019s point of view from a different point in time,\u201d Rentz said. \u201cI decided to become a counselor because I wanted to invest in children\u2019s lives the way that Tom Horton had invested in mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE MOUNTAINS ARE CALLING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born and raised in Beaufort, South Carolina where \u201cForrest Gump\u201d was filmed, the 31-year-old southerner at heart traded in her hometown\u2019s picturesque oak trees swathed in Spanish moss for Colorado\u2019s snow-covered slopes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fell in love with Colorado and it was a lifelong dream to move out here and become a snowboard instructor,\u201d Rentz said. \u201cI felt the mountains calling.\u201d<\/p>\n

That lifelong dream became a reality in 2015 when Rentz relocated to the Roaring Fork Valley to teach her favorite winter sport. However, following over a year and a half of seasonal work, the snowboard instructor missed her true calling, working with children.<\/p>\n

Rentz, who holds two graduate degrees, previously served as a community mental health professional in north Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt myself being called back to working with kids,\u201d Rentz said. \u201cTheir hearts are still so open and that\u2019s what stuck with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

AN OPEN DOOR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now in her fourth year working as a school counselor, Rentz was all smiles as she prepared for the over 400 students that will file through Sopris Elementary School\u2019s hallways Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy bulletin board this year is very simple, it\u2019s a mirror that says, \u2018you belong here,\u2019\u201d Rentz said. \u201cI want to help the new students coming in understand that even though they don\u2019t know what all Sopris is about quite yet, that they are welcome here and that we can\u2019t wait to have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rentz recalled her own first year at Sopris Elementary, in particular, the time she had to correct a teacher about her role as the school\u2019s counselor.<\/p>\n

The well-intentioned teacher threatened to send a student to Rentz, but for the wrong reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not here to correct students. I\u2019m not here to discipline them. I am here to give them a safe place to talk and to figure things out,\u201d Rentz said. \u201cSome of my favorite moments are when kids just know to come to my office. They know where to go. They\u2019ll come knock on the door and say, \u2018Ms. Megan, I knew I needed to come here.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a really powerful way to let the kids know that conversation and communication matters, even from a young age.\u201d<\/p>\n

A MAGICAL PLACE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rentz described Sopris Elementary School as a magical place and considered its administrators, teachers and students family.<\/p>\n

According to Rentz, the elementary school experienced zero teacher turnover this year and even added two new Pre-K teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like coming home to family,\u201d Rentz said. \u201cThe hearts that we have on this staff\u2026I just feel lucky to work here.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the start of a new school year, Rentz looked down at her wrist and remembered her high school English teacher\u2019s own devotion to his students.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we lose people, they\u2019re still in our lives,\u201d Rentz said. \u201cAnd, his impact on my life reaches 400 kids a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Megan Rentz is the school counselor at Sopris Elementary. (Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent) Sopris Elementary School Counselor Megan Rentz has three words tattooed on her wrist: \u201cSo it goes.\u201d The quote that appears repeatedly in Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s novel \u201cSlaughterhouse-Five\u201d following instances of death, pays tribute to Rentz\u2019s freshman high school English teacher Tom Horton, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1313661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 04:22:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}