Group: Use stimulus to restore city schools’ guidance counselors

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A community grass-roots organization dedicated to improving education in the city school district wants the city school board to use federal stimulus funds to restore guidance counselors to full-time status.

Jimma McWilson, a member of the Community High Commission on Closing the Academic Standards Achievement Gap for Afrikan Students in the city schools, told the school board this week that the issue is most critical in the elementary schools where counselor jobs have been reduced to half-time positions.

Youngstown is slated to get about $8 million in federal stimulus dollars over a two-year period, and, so far, the school board has approved spending about $1 million of it.

The district, under state fiscal emergency, has been cutting staff and reducing spending over the last three years, and guidance counselors have been cut to part time in the elementary schools, said Anthony Catale, school board president. That reduction also applies at the middle-school level, but high school counselors remain at full time.

McWilson said the Community High Commission has been visiting district schools to examine the history and status of black student education, and members have conducted their survey in 15 of the district’s 16 schools so far.

The key finding is that there is a need for full-time psycho-social-emotional behavior support in all schools, especially at the elementary level, he said.

Most schools don’t have a full-time counselor/social worker who can work with children who have behavior needs that lead to suspension and expulsions, and those needs can’t be handled inside the academic setting, he said.

The classroom teacher isn’t qualified to deal with them, and part-time counselors don’t have adequate time to do it, McWilson said. The result is that the classroom teacher and the building administrator are forced to deal with behavior issues that take away from time that should be spent on academics, he said.

He said he thinks students are being suspended more often than necessary because there is no counselor available to deal with nonviolent behavior issues, contact amenable parents and make appropriate referrals to community resources to provide assistance to the family.

The commission wants the school board to direct the superintendent and treasurer to find a way to get assistance to children with psycho-social-emotional needs, he said.

Newly elected board member Andrea Mahone asked if decisions have been made on how the stimulus money will be spent.

Catale said some spending has been approved, but the board needs to work on finalizing a stimulus money budget. That will be done over the next several weeks, he said, noting that the administration has suggested using stimulus money to restore guidance counselors to full time during the two-year funding window.

The district must be careful that the funding, available only over a two-year period, is spent on stimulating academic achievement, he said.

gwin@vindy.com