KUER Local News
(2010-02-01)
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Ingraham High School student Jony Phan protested cuts to Seattle's College & Career Center Specialists at a January meeting of the school board.
Gary Davis photo.
Jony Phan is a senior at Ingraham High, and he says he's frustrated. "I just finished my college applications, and I didn't realize how stressful it was, getting all the extra help I need."
Jony's had to do most of the process on his own. His immigrant parents speak little English. And at Ingraham, as with most Seattle high schools, there's no career counselor anymore to lend a hand.
"You need a lot of help. There's a lot of editing, and a lot of colleges we can't particularly know which one we want to go to unless we visit it. That's what a career and college center specialist did for us," he says.
Jony showed up alongside career specialists at this recent school board meeting. They're asking the district to rehire the nine counselors who were let go in last year's layoffs. There are only five left. One of them is Cathy Hagood.
"Some students can do everything on their own. Others need step-by-step help, looking at their personal statements and essays, and choosing the correct scholarship application."
Hagood's been with the district 30 years, much of it at Nathan Hale. After last year's cuts, she was sent to work at two alternative schools. Of Seattle's major high schools, only Ballard and Chief Sealth have kept career specialists..and only part-time. Those schools had enough parent support to keep a position available, a decision ultimately made by the school principals.
Seattle School finance director Duggan Harman says there's little he can offer in the way of assurances to beefing up the ranks again. "It's not that we don't believe the career center specialists provide an important function, it's just we have to make some really hard choices."
Harman says the district decided to prioritize additional staff who work with students struggling to pass the state's standardized exams. That was a cost the state used to pick up. Now, with big cuts looming, Cathy Hagood says she fears all the career specialists will be let go.
"It's pretty demoralizing having to beg year after year to keep your job and show that you think you've been helping students, and have been doing a good job. It doesn't seem to matter."
Hagood says she worries more for the kids who won't get the help they need to turn their high school careers into something better.
"They miss out on things. They miss out on scholarships, leadership programs, career field trips. So, students just get less services."
Another part of her job description: keeping an eye out for aggressive military recruiters on campus, and making sure peace recruiters are there as well. That job was mandated to the career specialists by the school board after a public debate a few years ago.
Fewer student services will likely be the theme this month as the school board begins its budget review. They'll be looking at cuts of 35 million dollars. Those fighting to rehire career center specialists will be pitted against others who consider their services basic to student success. Gary Davis, KPLU News, Seattle.
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