As the second semester kicks into gear, Santa Clara High has brought an extra counselor on board to make counseling services more accessible to students..

In January, former Cabrillo Middle School counselor Cindy Menezes came to the counseling office as a full time counselor, one whom Vice Principal Tony Lam is “very excited to have on board.”

The addition of Menezes has brought down current caseloads to around 450 students per counselor, compared to the previous caseload of roughly 580. These reductions are intended to be the first step in combatting the  disproportionate student-to-counselor ratio, which makes it difficult for students to get the academic guidance they need to succeed in high school and prepare for college.

In addition to Menezes, the school plans to hire  one more full-time as well as one half-time counselor over the summer, helping to balance caseloads further.

As the counseling department expands to having six counselors, each counselor’s workload would be reduced from over 580 to around 300 students per counselor. This ratio puts SCHS dramatically below the state average.

In California, the state average is 945 students per counselor. That is nearly double the national average of only 477 students per counselor, according to research conducted in 2015 by the state Department of Education.

After Menezes joined the staff, the counseling department re-distributed casefiles to lighten each counselor’s load. .

“All the counselors will have about a hundred less students,” said counselor April Anderson, “so that means we can go a little more into detail with some students that we can’t always get to. We’ll be able to spend more energy on things like helping kids who are truant or having difficulties at home.”

Menezes is handling students with last names beginning with D through F, students with last names beginning with P though Ri, as well as all freshman AVID students. The change has primarily affected students who previously had Dave Fernandez and Katy Weeks as their counselors.

This shift in the responsibilities is also one which is welcomed by the students of SCHS, who feel this will be of much needed aid to the understaffed department.

“I requested to see my counselor three weeks ago and I still haven’t been called in,” said sophomore Alicia Luong, “because of that I think more counselors would be amazing. That means counselors can have more one-on-one time and more opportunities to do what they’re there for– counsel.”