Speaker: Erin Leslie Luong
Erin Leslie Luong: Good morning. My name is Aaron Luang and I have been a professional school counselor with the Calgary Catholic school district for the past 20 years, I took my first contract as a school counselor back in 2004. Before that, I was a special education teacher. Um over the last 20 years, um the complexity and needs of my position have become more and more overwhelming um research by the University of Alberta and the American Teachers Association says that I should be working at a 1 to 250 councils to student ratio. This year, I had over 800 students in my school and I was a part time counselor and I taught um all a grade eight, all of grade nine, part of grade seven and kindergarten health on top of being the school counselor in that school. Um and it did not set me up for success next year in order to remove the teaching portion of um my role to give me more time to be able to focus on students. I will be sharing two schools which means there will be one school counselor for 1800 students that is very different from the 1 to 250 student ratio that is projected. Um and the students that I work with now, um I love my job. I say I get paid to love kids, but they come in and we're dealing with way more complex needs, way more complex home lives, way more mental health and way less mental health supports than the students that I saw. My very first year of teach are of school counseling. Way back in 2004.
