The Nexus

It started with the pink slips, back in June last year, that the counseling department first began to consider where they would have to make cuts.

They were unaware of how many counselors they would lose but they knew some services would have to be taken away in order to adjust to the changing times and budget. But it was this year when they finally realized the extent to which they would have to change.

After losing one full-time counselor and one part-time counselor, the remaining counselors each gained approximately 150 students to help through high school.

Even though they didn’t want to, the counselors knew it was time to start cutting back on some of the things they had done in previous years; there was just no way they could continue to meet the same demands for 33 percent more students.

One casualty of the budget cuts being felt now is the sophomore meetings, a time when each sophomore in years past has met with their parents and counselors to review their transcripts and discuss their goals and plans for their remaining years at Westview.

“We just don’t have the luxury of doing individual meetings anymore,” counselor Linda Suokko said. “We just don’t have the people power that we used to have; we just can’t get them done.”

No matter what each student’s grades were, each meeting would last around 30-45 minutes so counselors could talk with each student about their specific needs as well as get to know each student.

Suokko said that this is extremely important for her and the students because it makes their counselor more accessible.

This is important because very few students take the time to get to know their counselor without these mandatory meetings.

Now Suokko says it will be harder for her to get to know all of her students. Although she tries to stop into every homeroom, she no longer will have that same degree of personal contact that she once had with each and every student.

Suokko said she hopes that all her students will come to her and meet her or at least know who she is, but she knows that she probably won’t meet everyone.

“It’s sad because all I know of students now are a face on a screen,” Suokko said. “It was because of the sophomore meetings that I got to know everyone.”

Although there will be no more sophomore meetings this year, the counseling department will offer a meeting that will cover most of the same information.

Suokko says they are planning on tailoring the meetings to fit specific groups of student needs as best as they can. More information about these meetings will be available in the spring.

The counselors will also still offer meetings for the students who need the help. And any student is encouraged to visit their counselor’s office as time permits.