Counseling Changes Set for Upcoming 2016-2017 School Year

Devika Patel, Heritage Portraits & Ads Editor| February 1, 2016

Beginning in the 2016- 2017 school year, a new counseling change will be implemented. Students will have the same counselor from 9th -12th grade rather than having a freshman counselor and switching to a different counselor for the remaining three years.

This change will allow for a smooth transition for both students and the counselors from 8th grade into the high school years.

“The main reason is for the change is so students will not have to transition to a new counselor three times in three years (8th, 9th and 10th grade) and to provide consistency over the four years of high school,” Lead Counselor Mr. Steve Clark said.

Unfortunately, some students will have to switch to yet another counselor for the coming school year.

“There will be a small number of current 10th and 11th grade students who will have a different counselor next year,” Mr. Clark said.

There will be no way to prevent this from happening, however the counselors will work to make this switch as easy as possible.

“Some of the students will be assigned a different counselor that they have currently depending on the alpha split,” Counselor Mrs. Kim Camardo said. “If a student moves to a new counselor next year, our counseling team will make this as seamless a transition as possible.”

One additional positive to this change is that incoming freshman and their families will be able to meet with their counselors for all of their high school years during the registration process for 9th grade.

“Another benefit to the 9th to 12th grade model is families will have one point of contact for all four years of high school. With a large school, it is nice to have one consistent point of contact,” Mr. Clark said.

For the counselors, this change is going to affect them in terms of the transition as well. They will be working with students consistently from 9th to 12th grade, so the initial switch may be hectic, but the longterm effect is substantially positive and beneficial.

“Students seem to quickly adjust to change and for the long term it will be a very positive change,” Mrs. Camardo said.