Counselor Cleo Carrillo is retiring by choice.
“I still think I have a few good years in me,” Carrillo said, smiling.
Since the 1970s, Carrillo has been involved with education.
She has transferred to different schools in the district working as a teacher, for Senate Bill 65, and as a counselor.
During her teaching career her supervisor gave her advice, telling her she had “gifts and talents where students would benefit more from (her) services as a counselor.”
But Carrillo is currently facing family troubles and doesn’t want to “run in and out on students.”
“Students deserve the best attention possible,” Carrillo said. “That’s why it’s time for me to go.”
Just last year, her husband turned ill, leaving her to care for him as well for her mother who suffers from Dementia.
She was unhappy with her need to retire, but she doesn’t see it as a total loss. “Now I see what battles I’m fighting, and what I have to let go.”
Carrillo added that it is the best time for her to retire, knowing that she is eligible for The Golden Handshake.
This is where the district will compensate 75 percent of her annual salary over a period of time. These payments can be made in any way she desires.
As she prepares for her departure, she is unsure of what “the face of counseling” will look like.
She believes this has been “one of the hardest hit years” in education and that it will only worsen until the economy recovers.
It is unlikely that students will be seeking the same counselors for assistance, but Carrillo believes that “children are resilient and are able to seek help from others.”
Carrillo may be leaving campus, but her tendency to help people doesn’t end here.
She plans to volunteer for other agencies and resume participating in church organizations. “Being a lady of leisure, I’ll attempt to get back to the community.”
She also wishes to perform volunteer work for El Joven Noble, which works to transform the “perception in attitude” for male Latinos. “I’ll be on the outskirts still helping students.”