California School Counselor - Winter 2008 - (Page 8)

Executive Director’s Report By Loretta Whitson CASC Executive Director The 2009 Outlook for California School Counselors Another California legislative season has come and gone and public education general funds including the Middle and High School Supplemental Counseling Program (MHSSCP) faired fairly well in the ﬁnal state budget outlined for 2008-09. Districts will receive approximately the same amount of funds they received in 2006-07 for the MHSSCP, and the MHSSCP was not included in a block grant and will remain independent ﬁnancially of other categorical programs. (District administrators want ﬂexibility to spend funds taking from one program to accomplish the criteria outlined in another and CASC aggressively opposed that proposal for the MHSSCP.) Throughout the long budget negotiation process ﬁlled with widespread rumors of catastrophic cuts to education, CASC, all along the way, was reassuring 8 school administrators that the MHSSCP funds appeared relatively stable. As we could not promise anything, we had spoken to the governor’s oﬃce and many key legislators who reassured us of their overwhelming support for school counseling and for maintaining MHSSCP. However, as CASC remained conﬁdent in their stance, that conﬁdence did not deter some districts from eliminating school counseling jobs and placing a hiring freeze on school counseling positions. Job loss for a number of our school counseling colleagues was not only because of the predictions of devastating budget reductions; it was also as a result of some district administrations’ maneuvering to ﬁnd ways to ﬁnagle the MHSSCP to supplant the general funds. In 2002 the state allowed districts to bailout their general funds with carryover from state categorical programs. It was rumored that this might occur again, which perhaps fueled some school districts to slash positions. This is not a new story for the school counseling profession; the pattern of slashing school counseling jobs in lean budget years is typical. However, now the time has come for this problem to be addressed, and CASC has wholeheartedly embraced this issue as central to their eﬀorts in 2009. One of the problems with the MHSSCP is that it has no limit on the amount of funds a district can carryover from year to year. So, in some ways there was an incentive to cut back MHSSCP spending, as districts waited to see the outcome of the state budget negotiations. Since the MHSSCP funds were not cut, and if districts who cut school counseling positions chose to not ﬁ ll these positions, these districts’ MHSSCP ﬁnancial accounts will be “loaded.” And legally they can do that. The bottom line is, without budgetary oversight, some districts may continue to see the MHSSCP money as their rainy-day account and not use the money according to statute. The statute is clear: MHSSCP is to only be used for salaries, beneﬁts and professional development for Pupil Service Credential holders. We need to make sure this happens consistently year after year. Th at is why CASC is taking on this issue straightforwardly and vigorously. The California School Counselor | winter 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of California School Counselor - Winter 2008

California School Counselor - Winter 2008 Contents Presidential Perspectives Jackie’s Jottings Executive Director’s Report Creating Possibilities Through Language The Six C’s Orange County Counselors Form Book Review Legislative Update Research CASC’s 2008 Leadership ASCA Announces Hughes Middle School Memory Tips for School, Work and Life California Commission on Teacher Credentialing Releases Statistics on Pupil Personnel Services Credentials Technology Tips Pics, Clicks and Technics Calendar Index to Advertisers

California School Counselor - Winter 2008

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