A Message from Your Chapter Leader

Well, we have finished the fall term and our winter vacation has ended and maybe we will have some consistency till June. As you well know, the reorganization of the Department of Education has impacted counselors greatly. I would like to talk a little bit about what has been going on in the past few years and pay special attention to our plight since the end of June.

In 2003, when the DOE first reorganized, guidance services were put under the umbrella of Youth Development and each region had an Office and Director of Student Placement, Youth and Family Support (SPYFSS). Each of these offices had a School-Based Services Administrator (SBSA) who was supervising the counselors. Under this structure I had to reach out to these administrators on your behalf to bring them your concerns and advocate for professional development and opportunities for counselors to meet their colleagues. Last year, the DOE appointed Lisa Anzalone as Director of Student Support Services. During the 2005-06 school year there was communication and collaboration between the DOE and the UFT. We began work on the Role of the Counselor statement. We brought you a fabulous conference for all middle school counselors last June.

Now this has all changed. During the last few days of June the Department of Education announced a reorganization of youth development. Phyllis Marino from Region 6 was named the executive director and youth development was changed from the 10 region structure to a borough structure.

There are now five senior youth development directors across the 10 regions. I will put the link list of these people on our Web site so you can know the names associated with your region. Under this system each region has two UFT counselors assigned to be a resource to the counselors in the region. One is a content specialist in elementary and middle school guidance and the other is the content specialist for high school. These counselors act as resources for you.

Sometime in early January, yet another reorganization of the DOE was announced and the Office of Youth Development has named a new executive director, Gabrielle Kreesler Sheely. A few weeks ago, Bob Astrowsky, the assistant secretary of the UFT, a former guidance counselor, and I met with Ms. Sheely to open up lines of communication so we could continue the work we’ve started. We have her assurance that the Role of the Counselor Committee will continue and we are beginning to plan a citywide staff development event in June.

In addition to all of the confusion that resulted from these changes, some schools elected to become part of the Empowerment Zone. The counselors assigned to these schools were not given any support from the DOE. They must receive their professional development from their own network.

In January, I met with all the counselors assigned to a network in Region 8. This meeting was successful and gave the counselors a chance to meet and air their concerns. More of these meetings must happen to insure growth and give counselors a way of networking with the counselors that they work with.

I know that this has been a long-winded message but I felt it was necessary for all counselors to understand the new structure. At this writing, this is the way it is. Unfortunately, we do not know how the new changes in the regional structures will affect the delivery of our services. I assure you that I will do everything possible to meet all the supervisors or managers or directors who work with counselors. I will continue to bring them the message that our services are vital to the operation of our schools. We contribute to a school’s climate. We work with teachers, administrators, parents and other school personnel to help students reach academic success and achieve personal and social growth. We are the glue that holds all of these things together.

I hope that you have a successful rest of the year.

— Angela Reformato