School System to Review Intermediate Guidance Situation

The decision to cut one guidance counselor from each intermediate school will be reviewed in light of increasing student enrollment at Edison.

As part of this year's budget cuts, the Board of Education cut the amount of guidance counselors at Edison and Roosevelt from three to two. The current system had one counselor assigned to each grade, with plans still being formulated to handle the new two counselor per intermediate school system.

Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan, in response to a question from BOE Vice President Ann Cary, said the district's central office will review moving back up to the three counselor system, at least at Edison because of enrollment projections.

Enrollment projections released by the BOE show that Edison's population is due to increase to 798 in 2011 and then to 862 in 2013, with the numbers coming from increases in the sixth grade enrollments. The increasing enrollments are causing a need for the school district to change the team system currently used at Edison for teaching to include additional teachers.

The additional counselors are needed to help address what officials characterize as the unique social, physical, emotional and academic needs of middle school students. The counselors deal with such issues as academic planning and adjustment to the middle school environment.

Dolan said it is not known if an additional counselor will also be needed at Roosevelt, which will see a population spike, but not to the level of Edison.