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Teacher asks board to reverse part‑time reductions to elementary counselors, citing growing student needs
Summary
A second‑grade teacher with Davis Creek Elementary urged the board to reconsider recent realignments reducing elementary counselors to part time, arguing students require full‑time counseling supports for breakfast, behavior interventions and social‑emotional lessons.
Rebecca Powers, a second‑grade teacher at Davis Creek Elementary, told the board she is asking the district to reconsider recent notices that reduced some elementary counselors to part‑time assignments.
Powers said students arrive at school with unmet needs — hunger, family instability and emotional dysregulation — and that having a full‑time counselor in the building makes a material difference. She described her school’s counselor, Ms. Allen, meeting students in the hallway each morning, bringing students to the office to eat breakfast when needed, leading group sessions at lunch and providing classroom lessons to support problem solving and emotion regulation. Powers said behavior issues at the elementary level are worsening and that a part‑time counselor who may take an hour to arrive from another school would leave students without timely assistance.
Powers cited a statistic she had found that about 33% of Davis Creek students are in what she described as a “typical family unit” and used that to illustrate changing household structures; she urged the board to maintain a full‑time counselor at every elementary school.
The board heard the public comment during the delegations portion of the meeting; members did not take immediate action on the request and acknowledged the difficulty of district staffing and budget decisions.
