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The board voted 7-0 during Monday's workshop session to approve the new counselor position in the district. The opening was posted Tuesday, and district superintendent Jon Hoover said he hopes to make a recommendation to fill it by the Feb. 12 board meeting.

Hoover said the funds for the new counselor are in the budget, and the position will cost the district about $22,000 in its first year.

Steve Gallagher, Elk Rapids High School principal, said one and one-half counselor positions currently exist at the school, with Gregory Hamilton in the full-time spot and Robin Anderson working part time. The parttime position has existed for about six years, he said. That position was not under contract, and creating the full-time position was desired to increase counseling services at the high school, he added.

It is the board and district's desire to continue a two-counselor system into the next school year, Hoover said. Both the two-counselor set-up and a student services center are being worked into the 2007-08 budget, he added.

The student services center would be housed in Elk Rapids High School's Room 124, and it would be a "one-stop shop" where students and parents could find information about college applications, scholarships and vocational and military opportunities, Hoover said. The accessibility to information will be better, he added.

"I think it could have a really nice impact on how we serve the students' needs," he said.

The hope is to begin remodeling Room 124 during the summer to have it ready for the new school year, he said. He added that Room 124 is an ideal place to put the counseling center because activities already center around the room.

Costs for the "retro-fitting" of Room 124 -- which would include turning one wall into a bank of windows -- would be worked into the 2007-08 maintenance budget in a line item for building and repair, Hoover said.

In other action Monday, the board placed Hamilton, a guidance counselor who has been with the district since 1986, on paid suspension with a 7-0 vote, according to the board's resolution.

By law, Hamilton had been on paid administrative leave until the board made its decision, Hoover said.

The two resolutions -- to add a second counselor and to suspend Hamilton -- are in no way related, and the board has been considering adding the new position since September, Hoover stressed. The board planned to add the staff member during the second semester, and Monday was the first day of that marking period, he added.

He said the timing of this board item coincided inadvertently with the timing of when the district's law firm finished drafting the tenure charges.