Schools
School Board OK's More Guidance Counselors at High and Middle Schools
The measure originally included only the high school, but three board members insisted on adding a counselor at the middle school as well.
East Haven High School and Joseph Melillo Middle School will both get additional guidance counselors next school year thanks to three members of the Board of Education, who withheld their support for a motion to just add counselors to the high school, until the middle school was included.
The board made its decision Tuesday evening. Originally, the proposal was to add two guidance counselors at the high school, one of whom would supervise.
But board members Patricia DePalma, Christine Maisano and Laura Kluth objected, insisting that the middle school get an additional guidance counselor first.
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The high school currently has four guidance counselors; the middle school has two.
School Superintendent Anthony Serio proposed beefing up the high school guidance staff in preparation for an upcoming accreditation review by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).
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He said the last time NEASC reviewed the high school, it found the guidance counselor staff was too small and recommended increasing it from four to five. Serio said he also felt there should be a supervising counselor to oversee the department.
But Kluth said the middle school was making do with the same number of guidance counselors as the previous year, even though the 2010 school reorganization shifted the sixth grade there, adding about 200 more students.
Enrollment at the high school, by contrast, has declined, slipping below 1,000 students, said Kluth.
Furthermore, Kluth said she felt high school administrators could provide supervision for the guidance counselors instead of hiring someone new to supervise. She said it was more important to add a counselor at the middle school, and Maisano and DePalma agreed.
Board Vice Chairman Raymond Pompano said a guidance counselor could be shifted from the Adult Education program, housed on Dodge Avenue, to the middle school in September. Adult Ed could get along with a single, half-time counselor, he said.
That didn’t satisfy the three board members. "I’m afraid if we do hire a full-time person for the high school, it won’t happen for the middle school," said Kluth.
"There are clear needs at the middle school," said DePalma.
Chairman Nicholas Palladino called for a vote on a revised motion to add guidance counselors at both schools, which passed.
