created by Technical_Fox_3654 on 09/03/2025 at 02:58 UTC
225 upvotes, 26 top-level comments (showing 25)
Hi! I’m posting from mobile, so forgive the formatting. *Throwaway account*
Currently, Albemarle High School has 3 Mental Health Support Specialists (formerly known as SEL counselors/coaches) for a student body of close to 2,000 students. During the most recent school board meeting about proposed budget cuts, they revealed that they are planning on cutting 2 of these positions at AHS. Part of their explanation for that was making it so that each school in the division only had one MHSS.
This is a problem. AHS has close to 2,000 students, whereas MOHS has just under 1200 and WAHS has just over 1200. How is it that the largest high school will have the same number of mental health support specialists as the other two schools, which are almost half the size of AHS? AHS is also the most diverse out of the high schools in ACPS, with 21.6% of students identifying as Hispanic, 15.6% identifying as Black, 7.6% as multiracial, and 8.6% as Asian. Around 30% of students at AHS are identified as being economically disadvantaged. Why are we cutting services for the high school with the highest need?
Recently, it was also shared that 1 in 45 students at AHS is experiencing homelessness. As you can imagine, this has an impact on mental health.
Some of the things the mental health support specialists do at AHS are: meeting one on one with students who are in crisis, connecting families with numerous resources in the community (whether it be long-term counseling provider, food banks, or help with housing), running groups, collaborating with teachers/admin/counselors/nurses/etc., doing a turkey drive at Thanksgiving, putting together hygiene kits, and more.
As one of the mental health support specialists wrote, “Albemarle County Public Schools I’m sick. This is a disgrace to the human beings who have shed - literally - blood, sweat and tears for our community and you just casually sweep us up as casualties of the “war”. I was here from the very beginning and I have paid the price of what it means to have such low resources to such a high need.
Please tell me the last time you high and distinguished personnel completed a suicide screening, transported a student to the hospital and stayed hours with them and their family to navigate next steps and developed a solid safety plan for when they returned to school. Tell me the last time you helped a student navigate trauma. Tell me the last time you left a session in your school office to barely make it to the adjacent bathroom to throw up after having trauma disclosed to you that you then had to navigate with CPS.
I honestly don’t even have the words right now. But what I can say is fight. Community members who have a voice that will be listened to need to fight back. They won’t listen to the hired mental health support specialist in each school, but they’ll listen to tax payers in the community who raise a voice. Fight back for those families who don’t have the energy, who don’t know how, who don’t even know what’s going on. Fight back for the school counselors and administrators who will be feeling the ripple effect of this. Just fight back. Period.”
We keep seeing the headlines of a youth mental health crisis, and it is here. AHS sees it every day. Please help us fight to at least have two mental health support specialists in the building. You can help by writing to the ACPS school board members (schoolboard@k12albemarle.org) and by attending a school board meeting. The next one is March 13th that will also have public comment. Please attend or participate via livestream.
The kids need you.
Comment by Seanahpalm at 09/03/2025 at 13:44 UTC
35 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Recommended case loads for a mental health counselor in a school setting is 250:1. This is placing 8x the demand on a counselor who’s making Pennie’s on the dollar compared to LPC’s.
My caseload is just over 300 and I can’t keep up with that number, and I work in an elementary school which typically has way less of a demand for one on one services.
This is shameful. As someone who has been working in education for 20 years, every year that goes by has me feeling more and more that the kids are not alright.
Comment by MAFIAxMaverick at 09/03/2025 at 14:02 UTC
13 upvotes, 0 direct replies
From a former school social worker, I appreciate you and thank you for posting this. I will definitely be reaching out.
Comment by rubythedog920 at 09/03/2025 at 11:31 UTC
35 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Funny how ACPS spent millions on Freshman Seminar for years, a class that teachers and students found a tremendous waste of time with a “curriculum” that was a joke. That money could have been spent on academic and mental health support.
Comment by buckwlw at 09/03/2025 at 03:36 UTC
44 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Thanks for posting so that more people will know what is happening. It's crazy to think they are going to cut 2 out of 3 positions for the mental health specialists. Especially, when I would think the need for those services would be increasing, not decreasing. I hope people will help support OP's efforts by writing the school board and/or attending the meeting to voice your concerns in person.
Comment by RebeccaHowe at 09/03/2025 at 14:47 UTC
9 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is a horrible idea! Kids need these counselors more than ever, and I’m sure the three that are there are busy as hell. I’m the parent of two high schoolers who has worked in a school myself and I am shocked that they would even consider this. Thanks for the info, will be in touch with them.
Comment by PrestigiousAttorney9 at 09/03/2025 at 14:34 UTC
8 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Is there anything we can do in addition to emailing the county? Is there a PTO at AHS that provides different kinds of support?
I’m hoping the pushback makes a difference. But what if it doesn’t? Can we all collectively think of some potential help to this issue?
Comment by supermg83 at 09/03/2025 at 12:42 UTC
11 upvotes, 1 direct replies
As a Woodbrook parent, I am deeply disappointed to hear this, and deeply unsurprised. Central office does not care about the kids in the urban ring, and I have zero faith they ever will with Matt Haas in charge.
Comment by Cassiopeia1356 at 09/03/2025 at 03:28 UTC
16 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Thank you. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Comment by Digitlnoize at 09/03/2025 at 03:40 UTC
15 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Thank you, I emailed.
Comment by Adventurous-Emu-755 at 09/03/2025 at 15:34 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
OP, similar "cuts" have always hit AHS through the decades, more so than other schools in the district. Thank you for advocating here.
Comment by ILikeTowtles___ at 09/03/2025 at 05:22 UTC
10 upvotes, 0 direct replies
thank you for posting this!!!!! sometimes i feel like services at school (like counselors) are the safety net for kids.
Comment by analyticaljoe at 09/03/2025 at 15:57 UTC*
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Why are we cutting services for the high school with the highest need?
Because given a choice between paying for services and a tax cut; we've consistently chosen "tax cut" since Reagan.
I say this not at all facetiously: At this point, given human's inability to deal with social media at scale (or social media's ability to exploit flaws in human cognition for profit.... really the same thing) I think our best hope is that someone luckily creates a well aligned[1] ASI[2] (Artificial Super Intelligence) and it takes over.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_alignment
2: https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/artificial-superintelligence-ASI
Comment by Technical_Fox_3654 at 09/03/2025 at 18:54 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Comment by UVAGolfer at 10/03/2025 at 01:23 UTC
4 upvotes, 2 direct replies
I know that Mr. Tubbs is a one man band and doesn't do a lot of School Board coverage, so this isn't directed at him.
But how is that these potential cuts and the foreign language cuts in Albemarle don't seem to have attracted any media attention? I've learned about both through Reddit.
Maybe I've missed it, and I apologize if I have.
However...is any news organization regularly reporting on ACPS?
Comment by pocketdrums at 10/03/2025 at 03:39 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I've said this for years, schools need *more* social/emotional support staff, not less. Let the school board hear it.
Comment by beanie_bebe at 10/03/2025 at 17:58 UTC
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Sent the email (also want to bump this so more people can see it.)
Comment by Flat-Imagination5734 at 10/03/2025 at 16:59 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
As a social worker, this is abhorrent. The kids are going to suffer, absolutely. But I also think about that ONE mental health professional and all those kids. Their salary better be at LEAST 85k. Who would ever want that job now??
Comment by Green_Specialist_657 at 10/03/2025 at 19:47 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I am a very outspoken student at AHS, you can see my last two posts. This is beyond heartbreaking and I fully intend on making sure this does not continue to be the case. Albemarle high school, according to a recent project me and another student have done, has the highest level of depressed students as well as almost every other mental health related disorder in virginia. To hear that they are removing further funding just two years after a student took their own life is deplorable and truly upsetting and unacceptable. If anyone has any strong words that they would prefer not to say themselves, tell me in pm or here and I will say them. I’m not scared of a team of shitty white men who don’t know how to take care of their own children, much less the children of thousands of other families. It ends here.
Comment by Bulky-Reveal747 at 10/03/2025 at 19:34 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Every resident should care about the mental health of our children.
Comment by Katieunderhardees at 10/03/2025 at 19:48 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is such heartbreaking news. Thank you for bringing it to our attention, especially those of us who would otherwise be so out of loop regarding schools. And thank you for all of the work you do and have done.
Comment by Mxy2ptlk at 09/03/2025 at 03:44 UTC
4 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Good services and good people going the extra mile Were these positions supported entirely by the county, or were Federal funds used? Just wondering whether ACPS is anticipating a revenue shortfall due to the planned elimination of the Dept. of Education?
Comment by Wahoowa1999 at 09/03/2025 at 11:47 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Meanwhile they're proposing to hire cops at Monticello and Western for the sole purpose of parity with Albemarle (where there is a demonstrated need for an SRO). Has the school board pushed back on these changes or do they rubber stamp whatever the administration puts in front of them?
Comment by beanie_bebe at 09/03/2025 at 08:13 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Can someone speak on what is going on with the budget and why ACPS is eliminating needed resources? They decided to eliminate language classes as well due to budget. 🤦♀️ I definitely plan on emailing! This is NOT okay.
Comment by Ramblingmac at 09/03/2025 at 18:02 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
We know that lone wolf (school) shootings are almost always copycat suicide attempts. (Murder-suicide, usually male aged 15-38.)
Every time a shooting occurs, some tiny fraction of the population reacts not with the horror of, “that could have been me/mine” but instead, “That /could/ be me!”
That likelihood spikes when the viewer is shown the material in particular ways (media frenzy) when they feel disconnected and jealous of society that they feel they cannot fully partake in, and when their mental health is suffering particularly to the point they’re willing to consider suicide.
We just had such a Charlottesville shooting that was fairly clearly related to mental health crisis.
If mental health counselors in school take that tiny fraction and make it even smaller; then it’s money well spent. And that doesn’t even touch on the other benefits.
Assuming you believe in the value of a strong second amendment (as I assuredly do) funding this is one of the responsibility parts of our rights.
Comment by beanie_bebe at 09/03/2025 at 23:10 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Should we email both the school board email and the budget email?