ASD Budget Cuts Target Career Resource Advisors

Anchorage School District Superintendent Jim Browder says cuts to the district's 2013-2014 budget are some of the toughest choices he's had to make. Browder has proposed eliminating 215 jobs -- including all eight of the high-school career resource advisors who help students with post-graduation options. 

Becoming college and career-ready while in high school is a huge process, when you think about where you want to go school, what classes you need to take beforehand, and how you are going to pay for it.

That’s where a career resource advisor comes in -- but next year, not having them around means local high-school students and their parents are going to have to figure it out on their own.

East High career resource advisor Vonnie Gaither has many materials laying out students’ path to a post high-school world.

“SAT practice books, we have books on students that want to go to two-year universities,” Gaither said. “Applications, when they need to take the SAT, ACT.”

Gaither has the tools to help kids get where they want to go, but she says most of today's generation don’t know how to use them.

“A lot of our kids don't have the slightest idea what the process is,” Gaither said.

It’s a process that, as part of her job, includes talking to students early about how they are going to pay for college, what tests they need to take to get there, and the minimum class requirements.

“One of the biggest problems, a lot of our kids are not getting up to Algebra II, which is actually the minimum admissions requirement for most colleges,” Gaither said.
 
Gaither and other resource advisors represent a connection linking many first-generation-to-reach-college and English-as-a-second-language high-school students to universities and the community -- a link that’s on ASD’s chopping block because of a $25 million shortfall in the district’s budget.

It’s a decision Browder says was tough, even gut-wrenching.

“What our community needs to get their arms around, as revenues go down and we have to reduce individuals inside of schools, (is) that means that some level of service will be diminished,” Browder said.

Browder says the district will fill the void with the regular counselors in the schools, but Gaither says counselors won't have the time to juggle several hundred students’ scheduling, credit checks, and making sure they are on track to graduate.

“They are not going to have time to sit down and do a college application or do a (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) or make sure each senior has registered for a SAT or ACT,” Gaither said.

Browder says the district will try to uphold its standard of education despite the cuts.

“We will do our very best to provide a quality experience for all youngsters in all of our schools, but sometimes we won't be doing this specific thing as we have in the past,” Browder said.

Mayor Dan Sullivan wouldn't comment on the district's decisions Tuesday, but did talk about his choices when he finished high school.

“I knew that I wanted to get a higher education, and it took me a couple years longer than normal -- I had to pay for every dime of my college,” Sullivan said.

That’s a reason why the United Way of Anchorage says the community needs to step up.

“To advocate for our kids, to make sure that we really do invest the resources we need to help kids succeed,” said Michele Brown, United Way of Anchorage’s president and CEO.

While everyone wants Anchorage’s high-schoolers to have help, it’s a path students might have to take by themselves.

“We are preparing these kids (for) the world -- not just tomorrow morning when they wake up, but thinking about two or three years down the road,” Gaither said.

Gaither says college career counseling services are offered outside Anchorage schools, but they cost $150 per session -- a cost a lot of kids can't afford to pay.

The United Way of Anchorage says beyond advocating for resources, the community can contact them to mentor or volunteer in schools.

Contact Corey Allen Young and Chris Klint