Principal makes plea for additional counselor to help students

By BILL SCHANEN IV

Ozaukee Press staff

PORT WASHINGTON - The principal of Thomas Jefferson Middle School told Port Washington-Saukville School District officials Monday that his school needs a third counselor to help students, particularly children in crisis who are dealing with everything from panic attacks and violent outbursts to those experiencing thoughts of suicide.

“When I first came to TJ, one of the first things that struck me was the fact there are only two counselors. I was pretty surprised to see that,” Nick DeBaker, who is in his first year at the helm of the middle school, told members of the School Board’s Human Resources Committee. “At the previous middle school I worked at, which was the same size (as TJ), we had three.

“When you enter into our building and you start working with students, the needs stick out.”

The committee agreed and recommended to the board that the district add a third middle school counselor as well as a math interventionist to work with students struggling with that subject, particularly the majority of fifth-graders who come to the school with below-grade-level achievement in math, next school year.

“Both these positions will greatly benefit our students and our staff,” Interim Supt. Mel Nettesheim said.

The middle school years can be a challenging time for adolescents, DeBaker said, and it’s not that Thomas Jefferson students have more social, emotional and mental health needs than their peers at other schools but that their school doesn’t have the same resources to help them.

Thomas Jefferson Middle School has one counselor for every 375 students, while the American School Counselor Association recommends one counselor for every 250 students, the exact ratio the school would have with a third counselor.

The school’s statistics, DeBaker said, illustrate the need for more counseling help.

Of the students who visited the counseling center this school year, 72% came without an appointment.

“They showed up because they needed help,” he said.

And 55% of the meetings between students and counselors lasted longer than 20 minutes.

“That’s a significant amount of time,” DeBaker said.

These are students who are having trouble regulating their emotions, experiencing anxiety or “just aren’t feeling right emotionally,” he said.

For 33 students at the school, the mental health problems they faced were serious enough that they received school-based intensive therapy from an outside clinical psychologist.

Three students were referred for emergency mental health care.

“That’s a pretty significant number,” DeBaker said.

Eleven students reported that they had suicidal idealizations or thoughts of self harm this school year, he said.

“All of these things involve us dropping everything we’re doing and getting them help immediately,” DeBaker said.

That takes away from the time counselors have to work on programs designed to deal with the social and emotional challenges middle school students face before they become emergencies.

“We have groups scheduled, but they get canceled more than half the time because we have some emergency to death with,” school counselor Danielle Brown-Smith said.

The Human Resources Committee also recommended the district hire a math interventionist for the middle school after being told by DeBaker that only 38 of the school’s incoming fifth-graders tested at grade level in math this school year. The remaining 128 students were below grade level.

“This position could have an incredible impact on students,” he said.

School Board member Karen Krainz said, “I see the need for this. I’m all for it.”

Nettesheim said the savings from retirement in the school district this year, as well as some anticipated room under the levy limit, could be used to pay for an additional middle school counselor.

Federal pandemic relief money the district received in the form of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds can be used to pay the salary of the math interventionist, at least for a year or two, she said.