nothin Students: Where Did Counselors Go? | New Haven Independent

Students: Where Did Counselors Go?

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Ortiz: Students speak up.

New Haven’s high school students are aggrieved about the district’s guidance counselors are spread thin across student bodies, and shuffled around so much that they can’t build individual relationships over four years.

The Board of Education’s two student members communicated that sentiment at the board’s meeting Monday evening at Beecher School, leading to some disagreement about how to solve the problem — or even the extent of the problem. That led interim Superintendent Reggie Mayo to append yet another item to his growing list of tasks: getting to the bottom of this issue and reporting back to the board.

Board student members Jacob Spell, a junior at Cortlandt V.R. Creed High School, and Coral Ortiz, who is in her last year at Hillhouse High School, reported that one main concern arose at a meeting of student councils across the district last week: Counselor-to-student ratios are too high. That can make college application season — in which counselors can be integral in providing students with information they need and in writing recommendation letters — tough.

As Spell himself put it: How can someone that barely knows me write a recommendation for me for college?”

On top of that, Ortiz said, shuffling and moving of guidance counselors from building to building mean they don’t stick around for all four years of students’ high school tenures.

Michelle Liu Photo

Goldson and Caraballo: Hire.

Board member Alicia Caraballo observed that this has been a long-running problem. Caraballo pointed to a vacant supervisory position for counselors.

[I’m] going to ask for the fifteenth time if we can please find out exactly what the status of guidance is,” Caraballo said. It is a disgrace for us to have our young people not have the attention they need for guidance.”

Board member Ed Joyner jumped to Mayo’s defense, pointing out that the interim, once-retired superintendent has barely gotten back on the job. (He started last month.) Joyner added that the board needs to provide Mayo with full support to identify the steps needed to resolve the issue.

Mayo said that there is a person who’s looking out for guidance”: Chaka Felder-McEntire. But other administrative positions remain unfilled, such as the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction and chief financial officer.

The district also has some 40 teacher vacancies in its operating budget — and a recently revealed $4.6 million deficit. If the district hires those 40 teachers, the deficit would be pushing $6 million, Mayo said.

If you don’t care about us trying to work this deficit down … if you want me to go out and hire three top-notch admins, give me the word,” he said.

Goldson underscored Caraballo’s and Ortiz’s comments that the staffing issue has been persistent. He said that a few months ago, a major college in the state had said it turned down several NHPS students not because of their academic skills, but because the college simply hadn’t received paperwork from the students’ guidance departments.

Goldson, taking a slight detour from the topic, said he is willing to grow the deficit if it means having teachers in the classroom. Otherwise, he said, what is a school system even for?

I don’t think you have to discuss it,” Mayo said. All you have to do is tell me to do it.”

I‘m going to say do it,” Goldson replied. But we’ll see what the rest of them say.”

Ortiz offered some background, saying that smaller schools usually have one counselor for about 300 students, while other students encounter a rotating crop of counselors in their time in high school.

Board member Michael Nast backed Caraballo, noting that she has previously asked for hard data on the counseling situation. He also suggested that on early release days, juniors and seniors might meet with guidance staff — which Mayor Toni Harp (pictured) called a good idea.

Harp said she wants some bare numbers: how many guidance counselors the district has in total, and how schools apportion them.

We know that we’re down a supervisor, but are we down guidance counselors?,” Harp said. That is something we might also want to take a look at. At least to understand what we have. For next meeting, I’m happy with that.”

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