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Minnesotans pride themselves on living in a state at the top of the school rankings. High average test scores and graduation rates, extensive parent participation, innovations such as charter schools and open enrollment -- these and other measures have made Minnesota a model for the nation.

But in the area of school counselors, Minnesota is near the bottom.

Jarring national figures show that Minnesota ranks almost dead last in the ratio of students to counselors. Our average of 806 students per counselor in grades K-12 is more than three times the 250-to-1 ratio recommended by national experts, and much higher than the national average. Only California has a higher ratio: 971 students per counselor.

At a time when terms and quarters are ending and seniors need help with college searches, school counselors have their hands fuller than many educators think they should.

"The numbers are too high for our counselors," said Chuck Achter, principal of Coon Rapids High School, which has five counselors serving 2,860 students.

One reason for the low ranking is that Minnesota, unlike many states, does not require counselors for elementary schools. As a result, many districts don't have them, and the statewide kid-to-counselor ratio balloons.

But even at the high-school level, ratios often are far higher than the recommended ones. Tammy P. Roth, a school counselor in Morris and president of the Minnesota School Counselors Association, estimates there are only 1,000 school counselors working in Minnesota schools, including only a few dozen in the elementary schools. Some school districts, she said, have no licensed counselors.

Sometimes, budget cuts have whittled down the numbers of counselors. Or student populations have risen as the numbers of counselors remain static. Achter said that before big budget cuts four years ago, Coon Rapids had six counselors serving roughly the same number of students. There was a time when counselors could meet every student assigned to them, he said. No more.

"That individual counseling is gone," he said.

More than counseling

Many counselors now have to do more than just counsel. They administer a growing number of state tests. They have to pore over more data to help their students decide what courses to take. They have a flow of new, more mobile students to process that doesn't end at the beginning of the school year.

That's tacked on to the normal duties of registering kids for classes, and tracking their progress and their problems. There's also the walk-in traffic: kids popping into the office unscheduled and wanting to talk.

At the start of a new term last week at Wayzata High School, counselor Brian Gildemeister was tied up with several tasks: dealing with kids who want their schedules changed, checking grades to find out which of his students failed classes, going over college applications. That last one can be a daunting task at a school where 80 percent of its 3,000-plus students go to college. Gildemeister, one of six Wayzata High counselors, has processed 150 college applications so far. He figures that number will double by the time he's finished.

"There's never a moment when you say, 'I have absolutely nothing to do,' " Gildemeister said.

Things heat up again after the new year, as kids start registering for the next year's classes and state testing dates come around. At Mahtomedi High School, Anne Erickson and her fellow counselors must coordinate the testing. That means setting up the testing rooms, making sure there are enough testing materials and making provisions for special-needs kids.

At Centennial High School in Circle Pines, counselor Julia Corneil's job description has broadened to include dealing with basic classroom discipline problems. And in a school where parent involvement is high, she can count on an average of 10 parent calls a day.

Corneil has seen student-to-counselor ratios ride a roller coaster at Centennial. When she started out there seven years ago, there were four counselors serving about 400 students each. The school board granted the school an extra counselor, and the principal scrounged up another position, bringing the total to six. Since then, though, budget cuts resulting from failed levy requests have cost one counselor position. That, combined with the rising school population, shot the student-to-counselor ratio back up to 400 to 1, Corneil said.

One of the students who pops in occasionally to talk to Corneil is senior Elijah Bankole, 17. He was in Thursday to talk to Corneil about his college application. She has been his counselor since he was a freshman. How often does he stop by?

"It's way too many times," he said. "To sit down and talk to her for a long time, it's hard, but I stop by once in a while to say 'hi.' Not to talk for a long time; she's busy." If he needs to take up a big chunk of Corneil's time for important matters, he has to schedule an appointment.

"Sometimes it's real easy," he said. "But if she has a day that's really packed, it's not easy."

Lost opportunities

Counselors argue that they are often kept from doing their No. 1 job: getting to know their kids well enough to be trusted advisers.

"The best part of counseling for me is when a kid comes into the office, and says, 'Mr. LaBore, you got a minute?' " said Dan LaBore, a counselor at St. Paul's Arlington High School who is on special assignment with the St. Paul school district.

District surveys of ninth-graders showed kids wanted help most in planning their futures and identifying their interests and abilities, LaBore said. Many counselors have less time to do those things.

"If you ask kids what counselors do, they'd say they're bean counters, they're test givers, they're schedulers," he said. "If you had 500 kids and one coach, you wouldn't have a very good football team. ... A therapist would probably see five to 10 patients an hour for a day and that would be it. They don't have a caseload of 500."

Kevin Hogan, assistant director of guidance, counseling and related services with St. Paul schools, said the district high schools and middle schools average about 450 students per counselor. Sixteen of the district's 49 elementary schools have counselors.

Those are dream figures compared to Minneapolis schools. There, the counseling ranks have been decimated by budget cuts. Tami Johnson, coordinator of guidance and counseling for Minneapolis schools, said high school student-to-counselor ratios in the district are 523 to 1. With no counselors in the elementary and K-8 schools, the district-wide ratio soars to 1 to 1,324.

"Because of those ratios we get to do very little of that individual student contact," Johnson said. "We're so consumed with testing, and the more testing we get, the less time we have to spend with students to make sure they're successful with other areas of their lives."

Still, some districts have found help for counselors in the form of assistants to take over tedious testing duties, and deans to help with troubled students.

What's in store for counselors in the years to come? Enough new counselors to get the ratios down to ideal levels don't appear to be in the cards.

"When you're working with young people, there are never enough people," said Jackie Fraedrich, Robbinsdale schools program director for student services. "It would be a good thing if we could be at 250 to 1. But the fiscal reality is we are not going to be there."

Norman Draper is at ndraper@startribune.com.
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