Karen Quincy Loberg / Star staff Nicole Vitto talks with Glenwood School second-graders. Vitto is one of five counselors for the 8,800 students in Conejo Valley Unified School District's 20 elementary schools. District officials have considered eliminating the elementary school counseling program.

Counselor Nicole Vitto works the teachers' lounge at Aspen School in Thousand Oaks long before the first bell rings.

She walks around, checking in with teachers as they sip from coffee mugs, asking about a student who had missed school, a child who was picked on by classmates, another who regularly disrupts class.

It's a needed head start for Vitto, who spends just one day a week at Aspen, meeting with students and parents, setting up referrals and visiting classrooms.

She's one of five counselors for the 8,800 students in the Conejo Valley Unified School District's 20 elementary schools. That's an average of 1,760 students per counselor.

"You could be at each one of the sites full time," Vitto said.

But next school year, the counselors might not be there at all.

Looming state budget cuts have pushed district officials to consider eliminating the elementary counseling program completely, as well as cutting counselors at middle and high schools.

School boards throughout the state, including Conejo Valley's, have spent weeks identifying how to cut millions from their budgets, since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed shaving $4.8 billion from public schools. Plans could change by the time the Legislature approves a budget this summer, but in the meantime, districts are preparing for the worst.

School officials from Oak Park to Ojai say one likely casualty will be counselors.

No one likes it, Oak Park Unified Superintendent Tony Knight said, but none of the other proposed cuts would be painless. If counselors are saved, he said, the alternative could be things like raising class sizes.

Like Conejo Valley, Oak Park will consider eliminating its elementary counseling program next school year, and it's one of several local districts looking at reducing middle and high school counseling.

Knight doesn't know who would pick up the counselors' work. If the positions are eliminated, he said, some problems likely would go unaddressed.

Making matters worse, some said, California schools already fall way behind other states when it comes to the number of counselors at public schools.

"We need to ask for money," Conejo Valley Superintendent Mario Contini said, "not be fighting to hang on to what we have now."

California's counselor-to-student ratio ranked 50th in the country in 2005, at about 970 to 1 — nearly twice as high as the national average of 478 to 1 and nearly four times higher than the recommended ratio of 250 to 1.

Middle and high schools did get a boost two years ago, when the Legislature approved the Supplemental Counseling Program, giving them $200 million to increase school counselors. That is now targeted for a 10 percent cut under the governor's budget, like all other programs.

Increase reversed trend

The increase was fueled by concerns about too many students failing the high school exit exam and too few enrolling in state universities. It reversed a trend of more than 20 years of reduced guidance and counseling services, the California Association of School Counselors said. Preliminary estimates show the student-to-counselor ratio has improved to about 630 to 1 since the funding was approved, the association reported.

That's still worse than the national average, but counselors and others say they have noticed a difference.

"You have more of a chance to really focus on students individually," said Betty Patterson, who has worked as a school counselor for 23 years, most recently at Pacifica High School in Oxnard. Counselors also have time to meet with parents, she said.

Last year, Schwarzenegger signed a bill requiring middle and high school counselors to review students' academic performance individually and devise career goals, starting in the seventh grade.

Students, parents and counselors are supposed to meet and review admission requirements to state universities or career and technical education programs.

It didn't create more work for counselors, said Loretta Whitson, the counseling association's executive director. Instead, it allowed them to focus their time on advising and counseling students, rather than some tasks that sometimes get assigned to counselors, such as substitute teaching.

"They (counselors) also are pretty much the only person at the site who knows the kids for four years," said Martha Mutz, assistant superintendent for the Oxnard Union High School District.

Staff agree to smaller raises

In Oxnard Union high schools, each counselor works with 300 to 400 students, thanks to the supplemental counseling money the district used to hire 12 new counselors.

Next school year, however, Oxnard Union officials say they might lose at least five counseling positions.

Counseling staff agreed to a smaller raise this year to keep more counselors on campus, according to the district, but some positions still might have to go.

In the Ventura Unified School District, Assistant Superintendent Jeff Chancer hopes to keep the elementary counseling program using a combination of funds, including state and federal money.

The Conejo Valley school board this week discussed finding money in the budget to offset some of the proposed cuts, including saving part of its elementary counseling program, but no decisions were made.

Counselors in Conejo Valley's program said they know they make a difference in the schools. They ask teachers and parents to fill out surveys before and after they start working with students, and the results show about 90 percent see major improvements.

It's much easier to change or prevent certain behaviors in early grades, they said, than having to intervene in middle and high school.

Despite an uncertain future, Thousand Oaks counselor Jennifer Sheppard said she considers it "a gift" to work with children and their families.

"You can get so discouraged," she said, but then kids make it worth it. "Who's going to fill the void when we're not there? That's the part that makes me sad."