PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School District board will create a task force to recommend new guidelines and potential improvements to the district’s counseling and student support services.
The school district’s current counseling guidelines were written in 1990, district officials said.
“The creation of the task force is a very good first step,” said Mike Nolan, chairman of the Port Angeles High School counseling department.
“Right now it’s hard to see all the students we feel we need to be seeing, and we’re concerned about that.”
School counselors take on an array of tasks almost as varied as the students they meet with on a daily basis, said Nolan and other school staff.
Those tasks include everything from referring students suffering from depression and other emotional problems to doctors and therapists, counseling students on potential opportunities after graduation, and scheduling a pupil’s classes for a given semester.
Policy changes sought
Recently several school district counselors have called for changes to the district’s policy for counseling and student services to make their services more available to students who need them.
The School Board-appointed task force, approved at a meeting Monday night, will examine such changes.
According to Nolan, there are too few counselors at Port Angeles schools, a belief other counselors echoed at a special workshop meeting with board members on Jan. 17.
“My main concern is that our student to counselor ratio is 500 to 1,” said Nolan.
“Meeting student needs is very difficult at that ratio.
The Washington School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 200 to 1, Nolan said.