Counselors are great. Whether it be for class schedules, college planning, future career inquiries, or emotional support, counselors at Tamalpais High School are here to help us out. However, it might be time to help them out.
Tam has roughly 1600 students and a total of five counselors to serve the needs of each and every one of these students. Yes, you read that right. That’s approximately 325 students per counselor. It’s easy to overlook the amount of work these five counselors do for our school or criticize what’s not being done. But maybe it’s time to shift our focus to the real issue at hand: the lack of adequately proportional counselor to student ratios.
“I love Ms. Hunt. I want to be able to talk to her whenever I need, even just to ask a quick question. But the issue is that every time I walk over to her office there’s a long line of students waiting to talk to her, and it takes at least a week to schedule an appointment with her. It makes sense why though; everyone needs to ask her questions,” Tam senior Zandra Hyter said.
It seems to be a common concern that counselors aren’t doing enough and are hard to get a hold of. But in retrospect, if 325 students have to ask their one counselor a question, it makes sense that that one counselor most likely isn’t going to constantly be readily available.
It should also be considered that in the fall semester, underclassmen are slightly neglected. Senior students are undeniably prioritized by the counselors, given that they need college application support. This leaves freshman, sophomores, and juniors with less guidance.
“I’ve been wanting to drop a class for like two weeks, but I can’t get a hold of my counselor because she’s doing a ton of work for the seniors,” junior Oscar Tibbs said.
The ratio of students to counselors at Tam leaves our counselors with unreasonable amounts of work, and with that comes stress. According to the American School Counselors Association (ASCA), the recommended student to counselor ratio is 225-1. However, the national average in 2023 was 350-1.
“You know the more students we have, the less attention each student gets and the more systematic and impersonal our job becomes. In order to serve my kids in the way that I want to and feel like they should be served, I have to work way more than I am contracted for and paid for. I tend to easily work 12 hours a day. And I still am behind,” Tam counselor Alexandra Hunt said.
The way our counseling system at Tam works–and countless other public schools in the country—is that the counselors are piled on with more work than they can handle and are paid for, resulting in both parties–the students and the counselors–facing the repercussions. It is a lose-lose situation, one that should be promptly addressed for the sake of our community.
If Tam was able to hire just two more counselors, we could bring our student to counselor ratio down to 232-1, which is a much more suitable ratio.
Yes, there is no question it would cost extra money. However, the school is also planning to spend quite a bit on Yondr pouches to keep student’s phones locked away during the day. In the district board meeting, TUHSD announced that implementing the Yondr pouches would cost an initial fee of $160,000 for the entire district, with an estimated $44,000 to install it throughout Tam. Additionally, it would cost about $20,000 to 30,000 yearly to maintain for each school in the district. Let’s put this money to a better use, one that would benefit both students and staff.
We, as a community, need to address the wellbeing of both our students and our counselors to create a more efficient and functional system.
“I feel like all my kids need my time, and my colleagues also need my time in order to do their jobs, and there’s just not enough hours in the day,” Alexandra Hunt said.
