Mansfield School Budget Breakdown Part 3: Mansfield High School

Mansfield High School submitted five new staff and faculty positions for the fiscal year 2012-13 budget a few months ago.

School administrators put together a top 10 list of immediate needs for staffing positions that they collectively felt the schools needed for the next year in an attempt to re-staff the cuts that the schools had in the past few years.

“We’re still struggling in certain areas, particularly support services,” said MHS principal Michael Connolly.

This year, the school committee will be requesting for an additional $433,280, in addition to the level service-cost increases, for the FY 2012-2013 budget.

MHS will be requesting a guidance counselor/adjustment counselor for the top 10 list, and the position is estimated to cost $50,000 per year.

Connolly said that guidance counselors are extremely important for the high school. They deal not only with students’ post-high school needs and issues, but also deal with day-to-day issues, scheduling conflicts and the occasional student crisis.

“One of the things that I learned when I came into administration from the classroom was that I couldn’t believe just how much guidance counselors are responsible for,” Connolly said. “They’re sort of that first line of defense and they seem to get all the calls first.”

Currently, MHS has six guidance counselors total. Four of them are for grades 10-12, one for grade 9 and one adjustment counselor.

“A lot of schools have two adjustment counselors with less enrollment,” Connolly said.

Currently there is one counselor to handle 300 caseloads apiece. Connolly said that, while day-to-day operations, such as college prep and college applications, are suitably taken care of, with a caseload that high it can be difficult for a counselor to properly deal with those responsibilities when a more immediate issue comes along.

“When you have a caseload of say 300, and maybe a hundred and something of them are working on their college application process and those deadlines are hitting; all of a sudden a student or two that are on your caseload is in crisis and you have to deal with that student in crisis,” Connolly said. “Obviously, it creates a little bit of frustration for parents and students that are working [on their college application] and getting their needs met.”

MHS also requested a business teacher, a special education teacher, a hall monitor and an assistant principal. These positions will be added in later years as deemed needed by the school, the school committee and other committees involved in the budget process.