New counselors come to Oak Park

Two new guidance counselors will soon join the Oak Park Unified School District, thanks to additional state funding.

A new counselor at Oak Park High School will focus on ninthgraders and also help eighthgraders prepare for the transition from middle to high school. The three current high school counselors will no longer work with ninth-grade students, splitting the rest of the student body, from 10th through 12th grades by the same alphabetical method now in place.

A second new counselor will work with students at Medea Creek Middle School, Oak View High School and Oak Park Independent School.

Current Oak Park counselors and administrators created the new counseling plan, which was approved by the board of education on Dec. 12.

“We believe that the counseling model we put forward to the school board will not only improve our collective caseloads, but will also allow us to provide more attention to the most under-served portion of our student body, the freshman class,” Oak Park High counselor Randy McLelland said.

The change reduces caseloads, allowing counselors more time to address at-risk students’ needs, McLelland added.

In addition to the new counselors, each student will now have a one-on-one meeting with a counselor annually, something that Medea Creek counselor Patricia Frieband believes will provide more direct services to all students.

“I can’t tell you how many parents tell me they hope I never get to know their student because they are a good kid, never get in trouble, or make good grades,” Frieband said. “These individual meetings will communicate to parents and students that it’s beneficial for good, smart kids to know their counselors and that counselors work with high-achieving students as well as those who need more help.”

The change came about due to the California Legislature’s recent passage of Assembly Bill 1802, which provides $200 million for new counselors for grades seven through 12. According to state estimates, the money will cover an additional 3,000 school counseling positions statewide.

The funding is expected to reduce the student/counselor ratio in California from 966-to-1, bringing it closer to the national average of 488-to-1. At about 450-to-1, Oak Park’s ratios are not too bad, said Cliff Moore, district assistant superintendent for human resources.

The district is expected to receive about $145,000 from the state. A first-year counselor earns about $90,000 in salary and benefits, according to Moore. The district hopes to have the new counselors in place by the time the second semester begins.

“The hard work our counselors do day-in and day-out is amazing,” Moore said.

Currently, Medea Creek’s two counselors, Frieband and Carol Bailey, are split between about 930 students. Oak Park High School’s 1,350 students are served by three counselors, McLelland, Tess Wilkoff and Debbie Fries. Fries was added three years ago. Oak View’s 51 students and Oak Park Independent School’s 75 have little in the way of counseling services, according to Moore.

Besides working directly with students, counselors have other responsibilities, said Oak Park High School principal Lynn McCormack. They sit on the district’s Gifted and Talented Education committee, school site councils, principal’s cabinet, handle financial aid and write letters of recommendation for seniors applying to college. They run the high school’s peer counseling program and handle crisis counseling.

Students place a lot of trust in counselors, McCormack added. Counselors work with individuals and families, and handle conflict mediation between students. In the school’s career resource center, Mae Greenwald handles college and career counseling for all students.

“This is a critical thing for us. We are under such a crunch all the time to meet the needs of our kids, not only academic, but career, personal and social,” McCormack said.

In approving the plan, some of the school board members expressed concern about the large load being placed on the second new counselor handling Oak View, Medea Creek and the independent school program.

But “It’s a start,” said Lou Tabone, principal of Oak View and director of alternative education for the district.

The state has indicated that the counselor funding will continue annually, but it is unclear whether the amount provided this year will remain stable in the future, according to Moore.

“For us, the issue is making sure we can sustain these two positions for the next three to five years,” Moore said.

“The state intent is to continue the money, but you never know what’s going to happen,” district superintendent Tony Knight said. “If the state cuts funding or we didn’t have sufficient funding we’d have to have a reduction in the program or services.”