Thanks to special guest speaker Jeff Gale, who represents Ward 1 on the School Committee, the students in Theresa Manera’s fifth-grade class at Rhodes Elementary School recently got an education in how to create public policy as part of their efforts to make some big changes.

The problem Manera’s class has chosen to focus on this school year is one that affects each one of them – student anxiety and stress at the elementary level, and the lack of staffing on hand to help address and alleviate it. The students hoped to create policy that would designate more staff members to the elementary schools as well as to help disseminate helpful information to families about the topics affecting the students’ mental health, through the set up of an information area with take-home information available with resources and helpful guides.

They also hoped to create a box within the school in which students could anonymously place notes, asking for help for themselves or for a fellow student in need of support for stress and anxiety.

Gale, a former Rhodes student, was impressed by their topic and their research thus far when he paid them a visit late last month, but warned them that as with anything in life, the price tag is often the biggest hurdle that must be faced.

“Paying for it is the hardest part of getting any policy passed,” Gale said, referring to their hope for an additional 10 counselors for the district.

The students’ current research showed that 5,463 students share just 6.4 counselors between the 17 elementary schools, leaving the counselors swamped with their caseloads and unable to help with issues outside of them, sometimes unable to even maintain their regular classroom guidance lessons, as has been the case with Manera’s class, due to unexpected emergencies which must take precedence.

“Just as a rough estimate, the addition of that many counselors, including their benefits, would cost us an additional $600,000 or more,” Gale said. “In order to do that we’d have to go to the city and ask for more money, and the city did give us more money this year, for which we are very grateful, but that money is already earmarked to bring back the music program for the elementary schools, and that money only pays for about 70 percent of that program. I hate to do that to you, but I have to be honest with you about the fact that it’s going to be very difficult to get any more money from the state or the city.”

Despite those grim financial prospects, Gale was hopeful and shared his optimism with the students, noting that there were still aspects of their proposal that were very possible, and that he was willing to work on those aspects with them to help develop more doable policies in the immediate future.

“I like the argument you presented, which showed the research stating that anxiety and stress for students not dealt with now gets worse later on and harder to deal with. That’s a good argument and it talks about saving money down the road, an investment in the future,” he said. “I think a lot of people will agree with that argument and see that it’s something they care about.”

Gale told the students that in public policy, sometimes you don’t get everything you want, and sometimes you need to take what you can get.

“There is an old saying that sometimes half a loaf is better than nothing. Sometimes you have to take half the loaf,” he said. “So perhaps we try to get half a loaf for you. Perhaps we work together and try to implement the idea about the box, and the information center for kids and their families. Those ideas that might not be as costly and could possibly be implemented.”

Gale agreed to visit the class again in the very near future to help them develop the new policy so that he could present it to his colleagues on the School Committee for consideration.

“Let’s come back together and create a list of our priorities and talk about what’s possible, what’s not and what’s the most important for you,” he said.

Gale thanked them for their efforts and praised them for their hard work in trying to bring about change to their school on behalf of their peers.

“This is my favorite thing to do,” he said, speaking about his time spent with the students. “I don’t get paid for what I do, but this for me is the compensation. I like seeing you get involved in making a change. I like to see you finding a problem and helping to come up with a solution. For me, that’s what this is all about.”