Counseling and wellness offices at Tamalpais High School have returned to their normal locations after flooding and smell issues.
“We were waiting for our district to give us the clearance to return after testing and deep cleaning our spaces,” Tam counselor Helene Erler said.
Tam counselor Alexandra Hunt said that counselors began returning to their offices this week. Sandy Pula returned on March 2, Molly Couto and April Ginsberg returned on March 4, and Hunt and Erler returned March 5.
According to Hunt, Couto and Ginsberg returned to their offices after test results for mold came back negative. Hunt also said that she and Erler returned to their offices “after custodians did a cleaning, treated the carpets for odor control, and moved all the furniture back to its original location.”
Hunt claims the change “was also an inconvenience for many of the counselors since they didn’t have keys to the temporary rooms we were using. It meant they had to rely on someone else to let them in throughout the day.”
Wellness coordinator Yvonne Milham said that all of the spaces in the counseling and wellness area were tested on Monday for mold. She said results came back on Wednesday, and it was safe for her and other staff in the area to return.
“I think by moving around so much, we might have missed out on serving some kids,” Milham said. “Hopefully our signs were good enough that most people found their way to us.”
Wellness outreach specialist Sophia Kauffman said that Wellness returned on Thursday after her and Milham received the results.
She noted that “the custodial staff moved the furniture” back into Wellness. “Harold and his whole team have been amazing throughout this whole process.”
“I think we did have fewer students than normal, especially because we didn’t have our water,” Kaufmann said. “We had our fruit, we had our mints, but just fewer people were coming by. I did notice that maybe some different students were coming down, which I think is an unexpected silver lining to this whole thing.”
“It’s great to be back in our offices,” Hunt said. “We love it. You never realize how much you need on a regular basis in terms of materials and having easy access to administration and support staff until it’s so far away.”
“It is super nice to be back in our offices,” Erler said. “Most importantly, students know how to access our support and where to find us. We are able to meet in a 1:1 confidential office space, which is ideal for many of our check-ins.” She said that it “also helps to have all of our supplies, access to printing, and proximity to colleagues in the Main Office.”
“Counselors definitely felt the love this past week which made all inconveniences pretty insignificant,” Hunt added.