Revenue Caps Force Some Districts to Cut Counseling Services

Doug Green, a counselor at Blackhawk Middle School in Madison, prepares a group of 6th graders for a field trip.

By Joanne M. Haas

None of the school shootings or other acts of violence committed by children against classmates and teachers in recent years have surprised veteran school counselor John Fox of the Niagara School District in northeastern Wisconsin.

“And I don’t think they were a surprise to other counselors,” lamented Fox, now in his 27th year as a public school counselor. He also served as president of the Wisconsin School Counselors Association from 1982 to 1983. “We’ve been saying for years there’s a breakdown in the family and in the community.”

Fox is among the counselors concerned with the increasing human fallout caused by school district revenue controls. The controls force districts to base their budgets on the bottom line rather than on the needs of children -- needs that may not be met in larger classes run by overloaded teachers.

Affected in two ways
School counselors are affected by revenue controls in two ways. First, they see firsthand the impact of larger class sizes and reduced resources on the children. It is becoming increasingly difficult, they say, to provide individual attention to students, some of whom desperately need it.

Second, the counselors themselves are affected as their jobs are sometimes threatened when districts struggle to cover such costs as rising utility bills and underfunded special education requirements. Or they become overloaded due to a district’s inability to hire enough counselors.

“What that means is there just are students who aren’t going to be seen,” said Fox, who is the sole counselor for the district’s K-12 population of 575.

In terms of personal counseling, “I was full as of December,” Fox said. “I have a waiting list -- or they have to get counseling elsewhere.” But, he added, that may not be so easy for families on tight budgets.

According to Fox’s annual report, which he has been keeping for 20 years, he saw 224 K-12 students in individual meetings last year. Overall, he had more than 1,147 meetings and saw 104 parents individually. On top of that, he held general meetings in the high school regarding careers and employment, as well as how to best use time.

Some politicians ignore need
Fox said his district has been good to him and the community has a history of supporting education even though a referendum to bypass the revenue caps failed. The problem, as he sees it, is some politicians have convinced people their property taxes should go down regardless of the educational needs of children.

“They (some business leaders and politicians) think the shootings are a school problem. These are a community problem,” Fox said.

“We (counselors) are a bunch of people who are trying to make a last-ditch effort (to help kids). And at the same time, (some politicians) are saying somehow if we were more dedicated or were tested regularly, we would overcome the deficiencies the community has provided us. It just isn’t so.

“We are the ones called in when things get rotten,” he said. “It will take prevention and intervention. You’re not going to solve those things (shootings) with metal detectors.”

Ann Fuebringer, the president-elect of the Wisconsin School Counselors Association who becomes acting president as of
July 1, agrees with Fox.

Treating symptoms
“It’s treating the symptoms, but it is not truly dealing with the child or the young adolescent,” said Fuebringer, who for the last 13 years has served as an elementary school counselor for the Slinger School District. “And without people in the buildings whose job it is to monitor those kids, it will be difficult for schools to keep on top of those things.”

Fuebringer said studies show that while there is more school violence, there is also more divorce, more abuse and more neglect at home, making the need for counselors all the more
pronounced. However, she said, “We are now looking at decreases and funding cuts to school counselors in every building.”

Fuebringer said for the Slinger district’s 2,755 students, there are two part-time school psychologists, two district-employed social workers or home school counselors, and seven full-time school counselors. She works with a school psychologist to serve the 800 children who attend the elementary school.

“Every one of our kids has direct contact with a counselor in the middle school and in the high school,” Fuebringer said, adding counselors are in the classrooms each month at the elementary level.

While Fuebringer’s district appears to be able to support a counselor staff, other districts have not been so fortunate.

“There are counselors who have lost their jobs due to revenue caps,” she said, adding it’s a “sad state for kids in Wisconsin if they don’t have people there to be on the front end.”

Lee Fahrney, a Barneveld School District high school counselor, said he is aware of a “number of guidance counselors who have been given layoff notices due to budgetary problems.”

Counselors bear brunt of cuts
“At a time when prevention activities are becoming more and more important, it is possible that guidance counselors will bear the brunt of staff reductions,” Fahrney said. Now in his 12th year, Fahrney also serves as the high school president-elect for the Wisconsin School Counselors Association. Like Fuebringer, Fahrney said his district is enjoying stable enrollment and stable budgets.

Doug Green has been a counselor for 23 years, with a little more than half of those years as an elementary counselor. For the last several, he’s been a middle school counselor for the Madison Metropolitan School District. Green sees a genuine need for more elementary counselors so kids in need get a better start.

“We get a lot of 6th graders who are pretty angry about stuff,” Green said of the youngest students at Blackhawk Middle School. “I have four elementary schools that feed into Blackhawk, and none of them has elementary counselors.”

As the government relations chair for the counselors association, Green has heard from districts where counseling positions are being cut because of revenue caps.

Unresolved issues lead to anger
“The end result has to do with kids who are not achieving up to their potential,” Green said. “You have a lot of kids with unresolved issues which sometimes lead to a lot of anger, whether Mom or Dad got divorced, or there’s abuse in the family.”
First, Green said, the child takes it internally and then it is turned externally.

“Unless the parents have some money and the awareness that the kid needs some type of help, they’re not going to get any help.”
Green said his department budget is about $200. “You can buy 1½ videos or something like that,” he said.

Lack of supplies, training
Green, as well as Fox and others, said they have no money for professional development. And, just like their classroom teacher colleagues, counselors often pay for supplies that go beyond the budget.

Marcia Dull, a middle school counselor for the La Crosse School District and association past president, said there are “a lot of us who have had $100 (budgets) for years. You can’t even get a video” for that, she said, so counselors often purchase them with their own funds.

“I deal with kids all the time on safety issues,” she said, adding she runs “strictly optional” support groups for students during lunch periods. “We have 15 support groups.”

Public education is important
Dull said the public may not be aware of the important work of school counselors. And that is one of the top priorities for Fuebringer.

“One of my goals as the incoming president is to have us as an association get more information out there,” Fuebringer said.
Fuebringer said it is hard for her to understand how the public could support policies such as revenue controls if they understood the impact they have children.

“I look at the kids. They are the future,” she said. “Are we providing them the best base we can?

“We need to have great schools and great staff, and school counselors are part of that team,” she said.

Posted May 31, 2001