There are only eleven school counselors currently employed by the Ithaca City School District (ICSD), split between Ithaca High School, Boynton, DeWitt, and LACS. The school counselor-to-student ratio at IHS is a whopping 1:281. This means that our five school counselors are too overworked to meet with students more regularly than once or twice a year. Thus, students are often unable to get the individualized support and attention they need. School counselors help students overcome both social and academic challenges and sometimes work in tandem with social workers and school psychologists. The role takes on more importance when students reach their senior year of high school: for students interested in pursuing a college degree, school counselors connect them with college representatives, help them through the college application process, and write their letters of recommendation. For other seniors, school counselors help them make plans for graduation and beyond. These essential tasks are hard to do when counselors do not have the time to get to know their students during the first three years of high school, as well as having the responsibility of composing transcripts for each student’s college application. The solution to this problem is straightforward: ICSD must hire more school counselors.
The turbulence of the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted ICSD, affecting both staff and students in myriad ways. Numerous staff members have left the district or elected to work from home, and consequently, ICSD is soliciting applicants for a number of positions, including substitute teachers, school nurses, and teacher aides—but not school counselors. Either ICSD does not recognize the need for a larger base of school counselors, or they lack the funds to pay more counselor salaries. According to Career Explorer, the mean annual salary for a school counselor at IHS ($47,730) is only three quarters of the national average ($61,800). It is not hard to see why ICSD might have difficulty attracting school counselors considering the discouraging salary.
“School counselors [do] so much more than just scheduling,” IHS counselor Eva Collier says. She compares the role of school counselors to that of general practitioners (GP). You meet with your GP for an annual checkup, and when you are healthy and do not need anything, that’s that. Other times you go for a visit to get a prescription or diagnostic test. In the case of school counselors, some duties are simpler than others, like writing a note to excuse a student from a class or facilitating a conversation with a teacher. Otherwise, similar to when a doctor refers a patient to a specialist to sort out a chronic issue, school counselors may connect students with a social worker or school psychologist. But that is only when it comes to mental health. School counselors also help students with two other domains: academic and career.
Career counseling is done largely via Naviance, a college and career research database used by school counselors and students. Counselors help students navigate the website, research, and plan the steps they will take for graduation and beyond, whether or not they plan to attend college. In addition to general counseling, school counselors give a presentation to seniors each year outlining their role in the college application process and the process as a whole.The time it takes for school counselors to write letters of recommendation varies. Mrs. Collier says she can type one out in 20 minutes or less, but when interruptions and deciding what to say are involved, it can take weeks. Each counselor has this responsibility for 60 or more students, some of whom they know better than others. Taking into consideration all the other responsibilities of school counselors, it’s impressive that our school counselors get as much done as they do.
According to Mrs. Collier, the main challenge counselors face is time—or rather, the lack of it. In addition to working directly with students to develop skills and confront their academic, emotional, and career-related issues, school counselors collaborate frequently with other staff, most closely with school social workers and deans, as well as the parents of students at IHS. As one of the only positions in the building that work with students all four years, other staff members often come to counselors with questions about students’ histories. Besides, as Mrs. Collier points out, the challenges that school counselors help students work through are not quick fixes. They require significant maneuvering and resolving, and there is only so much time a counselor can devote to one student while there are hundreds more lining up outside the Student Services door. School counselors would have a much less stressful and demanding job if the district hired more. They would benefit any site, but Ithaca High School needs them the most considering the extra obligations of college and career preparation.
There is no doubt that school counselors play an indispensable role in the school community. Each and every student has their counselor to thank for the resolution of an issue throughout their high school career, whether it be switching them from zero period P.E. to fourth period P.E., referring them to mental health resources, or college preparation. Ironically, our counselors need our support too. On an individual basis, that means putting in the work to build the skills needed to help solve your problems. Counselors can only do so much without the active cooperation of the students they help. But it takes more than the cooperation of students and collaboration with other staff — for the school district as a whole, supporting school counselors means hiring more to lessen the burden and magnify the focus of the counselors we already have. Supporting our counselors in the pivotal job that they do will trigger a feedback loop that benefits the entire school community.