For many eighth graders, the transition to Brookline High School is daunting. Students are entering a school with hundreds of courses, thousands of students and a multi-building campus.
Ryan McManus, a middle school science teacher at the Driscoll School, said eighth graders preparing for high school are often stressed and overwhelmed — but a middle school guidance counselor helps soothe their nerves, he said.
At Driscoll, that’s Jacqueline Lavigne. She organizes a trip to BHS and meets one-on-one with eighth graders to help them select courses and develop a schedule.
“They walk out saying how much better they feel,” McManus said.
Next school year, Lavigne’s position will be gone. It was one of about 20 eliminated across the district in an attempt to close a multimillion dollar budget gap ahead of fiscal year 2027.
Teachers and mental health professionals at Driscoll say the change will be challenging for the school, increasing caseloads for the remaining two counselors and leaving many students’ needs unmet until they reach crisis level.
The cut will also impact teachers, who worry they will be called on more often and have less support helping students navigate interpersonal relationships and personal issues, fifth grade teacher Laura Zientek said.
“In order to be available to learn, kids need to be present emotionally, and if they’re feeling really upset about something that’s going on with a friend or at home, it’s hard for them,” Zientek said. “It becomes my responsibility to help them with that conflict, which takes time from other things that we’re trying to do. There are only so many hours in a school day.”
Lavigne, the counselor, declined an interview with Brookline.News.
In K-8 schools across Brookline, a combined 21 guidance counselors work with specific student cohorts, according to the district’s website. School adjustment counselors, school psychologists, principals and vice principals are also part of each school’s team of clinicians.
Guidance counselors work with individual students and help manage crises, but they take on a range of other responsibilities, from teaching social-emotional skills such as conflict resolution and stress management to organizing standardized testing and working on class schedules.
The removal of the Driscoll guidance counselor position follows the removal of a middle school vice principal at the school last year, which the School Committee approved during a similar budget vote.
“It’s these positions that are dedicated to middle school that we feel like we keep losing,” McManus said. “It’s hard because it’s less people in the building … some of the smaller things might be harder to catch.”
When fully staffed, Driscoll’s team of school clinicians works proactively to meet the needs of its 554 students, Marissa Sloane, a school psychologist at the school, told Brookline.News.
The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250 students per school counselor. At Driscoll, the student-to-counselor ratio is 184-to-1 — but with only two counselors next school year, it will jump to more than 270-to-1. It will be the second-highest student-to-counselor ratio in the district, behind the Florida Ruffin Ridley School.
Student and counselor populations at Brookline’s K-8 schools during the 2025-26 school year
*School populations from DESE, counselor data from district’s website
K-8 schoolStudentsCounselorsStudents per counselorBaker6633221FRR8723290Runkle4762238Lawrence6243208Driscoll5543184Pierce5873196Hayes4232212Lincoln4632232
This gives everyone less time for proactive work, Sloane said, and lands more students in crisis.
“It’ll be very much disjointed and changed and against what most people who work in social-emotional learning would say is best practice,” said Sloane, who has worked as a school psychologist for the past 11 years.
Teachers and mental health professionals also noted that early teenage years are typically a period of intense change, and having someone to work directly with middle schoolers is crucial.
Hannah Goldberg, the guidance counselor for third through fifth grades at Driscoll, said time-consuming responsibilities such as high school planning will now fall on other counselors. She added that middle schoolers have specific mental health needs and are typically at a higher risk of self-harm.
“It’s hard to put that into words because right now kids see us all the time. They see us and say, ‘Can I check in later?’ and we can just do that,” said Goldberg, who has been a counselor at Driscoll for seven years. “Students won’t get that when we do go down to two counselors.”
More cuts are likely on the horizon for Brookline’s schools as budget pressure remains and a May override vote approaches.
Erica Sullivan, a second grade teacher at Driscoll, said the middle school guidance counselor cut will reduce the school’s student mental health response to crisis management and leave teachers without much-needed feedback on how to support their students.
“We all understand that we’re in a terrible financial situation, and cuts have to be made, and we also don’t think this is feasible or right,” Sullivan said. “This is going to negatively impact the entire school.”
Archer Shen, a seventh grader at the Driscoll School, gave a public comment at a Feb. 5 School Committee meeting in support of the middle school guidance counselor.
“When important people leave, the new person has big shoes to fill. But you can’t fill shoes when you’re already in your own shoes, and I think this is the situation that the remaining guidance counselors will face,” Shen said.
Representatives for the School Committee did not respond to a request for comment.
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