District budget cuts cause department to take on an increased workload

Last year counselor Jamie Heller wrote 28 letters of recommendation for students applying to college. So far this year Heller has written 11 and that’s just for the first two early application deadlines on Nov. 1 and Nov. 15. With four deadlines still to come, Heller expects a more hectic year.

This increase in paperwork is one part of the increased workloads counselors at East are experiencing this year. According to Principal Karl Krawitz district budget cuts, resulting in a loss of one counselor are to blame for the increased workload.

According to East Counseling Coordinator Lili Englebrick, the East counseling department’s student-to-counselor ratio has increased this year to 350:1 from last year’s average ratio of 280:1. Englebrick said that individual counselors have had to take on 50 to 75 new students.

And it’s not just East counselors that are experiencing busier days.

This year, 45 percent of public schools nationwide have had to increase the case loads of their counselors, according to the 2009 State of College Admission Report, a study by the National Association for College Counseling (NACAC). NACAC is an association of high school counselors and college admissions officers, that aims to provide research to help counselors and admissions officers nationwide better serve their students.

Melissa Clinedinst, NACAC Assistant Director of Research is the primary author of the 2009 report. Clinedinst said there are two main reasons nationwide for the increase case loads: increased enrollment in public high schools and decreased budgets for counseling departments.

According to Clinedinst, both of these factors increase the student-to-counselor ratio, therefore making it more difficult for counselors to spend the necessary amount of time with students.

The student-to-counselor ratio recommended by the American School Counselor Association is 250:1 but according to the U.S. Department of Education the average ratio nationwide in public high schools is 315:1.

Senior Tara Raghuveer recently finished the college application process. She wrote most of her application essays over the summer, so two weeks after school started she began working with her counselor, Deanna Griffey.  They met for an interview so Griffey could write recommendation letters and after that they kept in contact so they could learn the steps of filling out the Common Application together. Yale University, Brown University and Georgetown University were just a few of the schools on Raghuveer’s list—she applied to 10.

Although she and Griffey had a lot to accomplish in a short period of time, everything ran smoothly.  Raghuveer said that she knows many seniors who are just beginning the application process and she feels relieved to have her applications finished. While her process was efficient, Raghuveer anticipates the counselor’s schedules will become more hectic soon.

“I was lucky because I got it done ahead of time,” Raghuveer said. “It’ll probably be pretty stressful for the counselors with the rest of the kids starting in the next few months.”

Heller has experienced the stressful effects of budget cuts first hand. Her daily goal is to respond to every student that contacts her before she goes home. She hates leaving one e-mail, phone call or note untouched at the end of the day and this year she’s had to.  Heller said it’s become a struggle for counselors to keep up with their new case loads, but they’re managing.

“We can feel it [increase in case loads],” Heller said. ” We’re trying our best not to let parents and students and teachers feel it. We’re trying to handle it as best we can so that they still feel like they’re getting their questions answered and they’re getting the time they need.”

According to Clinedinst, since the increases in case loads are tied to increased enrollment and decreased budgets due to the struggling economy, it’s hard to project whether it will slow down anytime soon.

Although those factors are unpredictable, Clinedinst said there is some hope for improvement in the “Pathways to College Act”, legislation currently being considered by the House of Representatives and the Senate. If passed, the “Pathways to College Act” would allow the Secretary of Education to authorize more funding for college counseling.

“It [the legislation] is a positive sign,” Clinedinst said. “There’s definitely more interest at the national level with the current administration in the counseling function of schools.”

Heller said that until budgets improve counselors at East will continue to stretch their time. They’ll continue to take on more to keep up with students’ needs.

“When you make cuts in education it’s within a community that is a serving community  . . . you get people just to work harder,” Heller said. “They’re not the kind of people who are willing to sacrifice the relationship they have with kids or what they could do for kids even though they’re running on less support or having to do more with less.”