If elementary schools want a counselor more than two days a week, they have to buy more days using their own money.
Researchers across California will investigate how school districts are spending their COVID-19 aid, and whether it’s working.
This year there are 134 San Diego Unified schools that lack a full-time nurse. Of those, 56 have a nurse on campus one day a week. Eri Nall, a head counselor for the district and a member of the teachers union’s bargaining team, estimated that the district has hired about 40 new counselors in the past two school years.
Elementary schools need to have at least 1,196 students in order to get a counselor three days a week — but with enrollment falling across the board, no elementary school in the district has that many students. The district’s largest elementary school, Zamorano, only has about 800 this year, having lost 200 students since the pandemic began.
Candace Gyure, who has been a nurse for San Diego Unified for 15 years and now works at Hoover High full-time, said nurse staffing has improved over the years. She remembers her first assignment in the district, when she worked at five elementary schools every week, and there were no health technicians available when she was offsite.Candace Gyure works as the school nurse at Hoover High School on Thursday, March 16, 2023 in San Diego.
While the district has had trouble hiring more nurses, recently it has added a full-time health technician to every traditional school site. “It’s not equitable. It depends on which school has the money to afford more counseling time,” Nall said. One of those schools is Juarez Elementary in Serra Mesa. More than 40 percent of Juarez’ approximately 200 students are socioeconomically disadvantaged.
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