Staff and parents urge Moreland School District to preserve counseling services amid cuts

Courtney Smith, speaking for the district’s mental health and counseling team, told the Moreland School District board that proposed reductions to counseling staff threaten prevention and equitable access: “With the loss of 3 full time counseling positions, this 21% reduction in counseling services most heavily impacts our elementary students,” she said, urging sustained collaboration to protect supports.

Olivia Guerrero presented district data showing a rise in student needs and counselor caseloads, saying the number of students receiving special-education services rose substantially between the 2020–21 and 2024–25 school years and that some sites currently face counselor-to-student ratios as high as 439 to 1; with proposed reductions, she said some ratios could reach 873 to 1. Guerrero cited the American School Counselor Association’s recommendation of a 250-to-1 ratio and warned that higher ratios mean longer waits for students and fewer opportunities for preventative intervention.

School psychologist Mary Baloch described how school-based counseling is often students’ primary weekly access to mental-health care and said her team at EDS (which serves roughly 900 students) relies on a small number of counselors to respond every day. “We are fortunate to have 3 wonderful counselors,” Baloch said, and she warned that further reductions would stretch supports thin and reduce consistency for students with long-term needs.

Marissa Trevino, a speech-language therapist at Latimer and EDS, and Melissa Mee echoed those concerns, saying counseling staff play a vital role for students with disabilities and for general education students, and that reducing staff shifts schools to crisis response rather than prevention. Stephanie Apple highlighted Tier 1 prevention strategies and gave an example of a family event that aligned classroom and family supports.

Superintendent Dr. Codd thanked public speakers for their advocacy and acknowledged the difficulty of the budget decisions, saying the district is trying to balance sustainability with personnel needs. She said the move back to a prior model with half-time elementary counselors was “not a reflection of the importance of the work” but was driven by budget pressures tied to rising personnel costs.

Next steps: commenters asked the board and superintendent to explore collaborative solutions and alternatives to layoffs; the board did not take immediate action on staffing during the meeting. The district expects the May Revised Budget to be posted this week, which the superintendent said may include increased one-time funds and a COLA estimate.