Counselor

Maria Blanchard is a proud graduate of North Side High School.  Her high school education included spending summers at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts where she took intensive courses in math, science and English.  She then attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry.  One of her favorite experiences at Wesleyan was learning to play the Japanese Koto.  After returning to Fort Worth, she taught biology and physical science at North Side High School.  She then taught at various schools within FWISD as an ESL and bilingual certified teacher.  Her greatest joy was watching several of her students reach levels of achievement they had not previously been able to reach.  In 2006, she earned her Master of Education in School Counseling at TCU.  She has been a school counselor with FWISD ever since.  Mrs. Blanchard's hope has always been to empower and encourage students to reach their highest potential.  She has seen many former students do just that, and she looks forward to making a difference for families and students here at Kirkpatrick Middle.

Intervention Specialist

Sophia “Sophie” Moreno was born in Kansas but moved to Arlington, Texas, at an early age and graduated from Arlington High School.  Sophie attended Texas State University in San Marcos where she earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Social Work. Upon graduation, Sophie returned to Arlington where she worked as a school Social Worker through a non-profit agency, Communities in Schools (CIS).  Sophie received her Master’s degree in April 2011 from the University of Texas at Arlington.  While in her Master’s program, Sophie worked as an advocate for the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas and worked on the Vickery Meadows project assisting refugee families.  After gaining valuable community outreach experience, Sophie returned to CIS where she was promoted to a supervisor position and has since moved into an Intervention Specialist position with Fort Worth Independent School District.

As the Intervention Specialist, she serves as a link between the home, school, and community. She provides direct and indirect services to students, families, and school personnel to promote social emotional health and academic success. Services include:  Individual and group counseling,  Student Support Planning, Crisis intervention, Peer mediation , OCI Social skills instruction, Prevention education, Leadership development, Behavioral consultation, Referrals to community resources, Solution focused case management, and Transitional support for returning DAEP students.

Counselor

I grew up in Portland, TX outside of Corpus Christi and then moved to Irving and graduated from MacArthur High School.  Next, I graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in Psychology.  My education continued at the University Of North Texas with a Masters in Education.  After my degrees, I worked to become a Licensed Professional Counselor with the state of Texas.  All of my jobs throughout the years have involved working with children with my first job as a secondary social science teacher at Brock ISD.  I have worked as a counselor at a runaway shelter and also as a Juvenile Detention Officer.  Currently, I have been a therapist for 18 years working with families and children.  Now, professional school counseling has been my career for 18 years, over 16 of the years have been at Kirkpatrick Middle School.  My favorite memory from middle school is finding a great group of friends and fishing with them on the weekends.  Since my junior high school building was hurricane proofed, it had no windows in the whole building.  Texas History is the class I liked the most.  My passion has always been working with kids and all the adventures that result.