Counselors back in schools Counselors back in schools (September 12, 2003)

District restores program cut in initial budget

By Julie O'Shea

After an intense four-day orientation workshop, 19 new interns from the Community Health Awareness Council (CHAC) this week kicked off a year of counseling services at Mountain View public schools.

This is a relief to officials, teachers and parents in the Mountain View-Whisman School district which, just a few weeks ago, were concerned they wouldn't have money to fund the $44,000-a-year counseling program. But the promise of a successful fundraising drive by the Mountain View Educational Foundation prompted the board of trustees to reinstate the service just days before the start of school.

"It's always a great experience meeting those people and letting them know how valuable they are," Superintendent Jim Negri told the school board Sept. 4. Negri, along with Rich Fischer -- superintendent of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District -- and Los Altos Superintendent Marge Gratiot, spoke with the interns during last week's orientation.

In all, CHAC has 52 interns who will help deliver services to city schools for the 2003-2004 year. That's enough to cover all nine schools at the Mountain View-Whisman district and the high school district's three campuses. CHAC counselors will also assist at elementary schools in Los Altos.

New interns last week got a rundown of some of CHAC's services, including art and play therapy, bilingual counseling and a drug and alcohol prevention program. A new program this year, Outlet, which is based in Palo Alto, provides support to gay, lesbian and transgender youth.

"I'm a little nervous," Jen Koegen of Los Gatos said after a full day of orientation last week.

Koegen, who will be interning at Slater Elementary this fall, is not alone, said Lawrie MacMillan, CHAC's associate director of clinical services.

The biggest questions MacMillan said he gets from new interns are "Am I going to do a good job? Can I really go out and do this? How are the teachers, schools going to treat me, I'm just an intern?"

To these questions, MacMillan replies, "Leave the insecurity behind. ... They are going to see you as the professional."

Counselors, most of whom are graduate students, must be fingerprinted before taking on any cases. They are asked to put in at least two full days a week at their assigned school and will see 15 to 18 students a year and take on five to seven in-house cases, MacMillian said. In-house cases are dealt with off-campus, usually at the CHAC offices on Church Street.

"I've been a counselor all my life, and I finally decided to get paid for it," said Karen Atkinson, a student at the College of Notre Dame who will be doing her internship at Loyola School in Los Altos.

Atkinson, who participated in last week's workshop, had a corporate career where her colleagues would often seek her out for personal advice.

"I'm generally concerned about the well-being of humans," Atkinson, a San Jose resident, said.

The CHAC internship is a non-paid position, although the school districts each write a check to the council for overseeing the program. While Mountain View-Whisman pays about $44,000 a year for CHAC's services, Mountain View-Los Altos Union pitches in roughly $31,000 annually.

Spokesperson Lamont Jones said CHAC would have continued to provide services to schools regardless of whether they were paying. However, Jones added, CHAC's money would have eventually run out and the program would have to come to an end without school district aid.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com