Breaking Silence, But Not Curfew, On Need for School Counseling Contracts

The three girls who stepped to the microphone to address the Great Valley School Board Tuesday night were looking for a little flexibility. They wanted to address the hot topic of the night — planned cuts to the district's mental health and counseling contracts — before it was too late.

"We have a curfew. Mind if we talk about that now?" asked Kayla Kratzinger.

Moments earlier, board president Bruce Chambers had asked Malvern resident Audrey Van Loan to hold her comments on the same topic until after a series of unrelated votes.

The board acceded to the students' request, and the girls made their case against cuts to district contracts with Main Line Health, which provides mental health counseling, and COAD Group, which provides substance abuse treatment. They spoke from the perspective of having benefited from those services.

"I suffered from a lot of anxiety. I'm shaking now from anxiety," Kratzinger said, as she faced the board in front of roughly a hundred audience members. "It's important that I have a plan, and in the middle of class I can go talk to one of the service providers."

Great Valley junior Margaret Adams said that school is the foundation of life, and without counseling services, cracks in that foundation can go unattended.

"We're speaking for hundreds of kids that have our concerns. I hope you guys keep that in mind," Adams said. "I hope we're not alone in the coming years. Thank you."

One 2010 graduate named Julie described her four years at the school as very, very difficult.

"The very fact that I’m standing in front of you is because of these two programs. If that’s not reason to keep them, I don’t know what is," she said.

The contracts with Main Line Health and COAD Group, formerly known as the Chester County Council on Addictive Diseases, were headed for elimination or reduction next year. The preliminary budget had assumed acquisition of grant funding to continue the contracts for a reduced level of services. In that case, in-house staff were expected to provide the services lost when the contracts were reduced.

However, pushback from board members and the public had an impact. Superintendent Dr. Alan Lonoconus said he would restore the contract funding, though he noted that the money would have to be pulled from other parts of the budget.

Other comments from students, residents and board members can be found in the photos attached to this article.