Tacoma schools to lose ‘hugely impactful’ career-guidance specialists. Folks aren’t happy
Parents, teachers and students urged Tacoma Public Schools’ board on Thursday to save the district’s four career-guidance specialist roles.
Career-guidance specialists work at each of the district’s four traditional high schools. They help Tacoma students in planning for higher education and exploring job options.
The district will not have designated career-guidance specialists next school year, TPS spokesperson Kathryn McCarthy told The News Tribune in an email, citing “programmatic changes.” Schools still will offer career support and advice.
“As an organization, we’re committed to helping every student explore career options, access scholarships, complete a high [school-] and-beyond plan, and secure a verified letter of acceptance to the next institution,” McCarthy said.
Many Tacoma residents let the board know on Thursday that they’re unhappy with the decision.
Parent Betsy Kindblade said she was “disheartened” to hear that certain support-service positions are going away. She told the board that losing such jobs would disproportionately harm Tacoma’s most marginalized students.
“I understand that the Legislature does not adequately fund the schools,” Kindblade said. “What I do not understand is why the cuts are coming from the lower end of the district’s pay scale instead of the top of it.”
Tacoma Public Schools grappled with a roughly $15 million budget shortfall this school year and expects 2024-25 to be worse, The News Tribune previously reported.
TPS spokesperson Tanisha Jumper told The News Tribune via email that staffing displacements are a routine process. Those being displaced will keep their pay, contract and benefits.
The district had to examine its resources and look for efficiencies throughout its programs, she told The News Tribune during a subsequent phone interview. Which jobs the specialists will get transferred to is yet to be determined. One such professional earned $78,693 during the 2022-23 school year, according to the state’s school-employee salary database.
In addition to the high school-and-beyond plan, students will continue to get help in different classes with writing resumes and applying to schools, Jumper said. Outside agencies like the Foundation for Tacoma Students will offer support, too, such as workshops aimed at demystifying financial aid.
Tacoma’s career-guidance specialists have been “hugely impactful” to students, and TPS doesn’t want to lose them as employees, Jumper said. The district has had to reevaluate what it can fund in the long term as it has lost budgeting flexibility.
“Because we don’t have any guarantees that the funding situation will get better,” she said.
Renee Trueblood with Tacoma Public Schools’ human resources department explained during Thursday’s meeting that displacement is just another word for being transferred. Sixty-five employees are being displaced. They are not being laid off.
Trueblood said while 20 of the displacements are voluntary, meaning they asked to work at a different school, the remaining 45 are involuntarily: Displacements occurring because of enrollment or program shifts.
“Now, this isn’t to downplay that it still has an effect on the person who’s going to be changing who didn’t ask for change,” she added.
Teachers, students advocate to keep career-guidance specialist roles
Nearly 80 written comments about “career-counselor displacements” were submitted to the board ahead of Thursday’s meeting.
Emily Harden, a social studies and English teacher at Silas High School (1202 N. Orchard St.), wrote that those professionals help students overcome discrimination and pursue their dreams. The way Harden sees it, eliminating such positions will lead to a greater number of under-served students.
Alexis Green, a senior at Stadium High School (111 N. E St.), wrote that career-guidance specialists offer students crucial assistance.
“Some people are not able to get the help they need because of their family dynamics, [neglect], poverty, mental instability, and more,” Green said in the letter. “This ends up causing teens to feel like they will not be anything if they do not have these career counselors.”
Jose Martinez-Perez Jr., who attended Silas High School, petitioned the board in person on Thursday. The first-generation college student asked the district to reconsider displacing the career-guidance specialists.
Martinez-Perez said the specialist at Silas made higher education possible for him. Before that, he didn’t know whether college was an option or if his family could afford it.
“Frankly, my family is not paying anything for my college education thanks to her,” Martinez-Perez said. “Guidance and career specialists are needed in multiple ways — not only at my school, but as you’ve seen in Stadium and other schools.
“But yet, for it to be taken away is like stripping a student of their opportunities, and that is something that I cannot stand for.”
This story was originally published May 28, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
