Earning Credit

This week a large part of my time has been trying to explain to students about how you earn credits in high school.  It is a valuable reminder for everyone.

High school is different than elementary and middle school.  In middle school, you take classes and each year you move on to the next grade and take all the classes for that grade.  In high school, you must earn credits for specified classes and the way you earn credit is by passing each semester of the class. 

So, for example, all students must earn 4 credits of English to graduate.  When you pass both semesters of English 1 during your freshman year, you move on to English 2 during your sophomore year.  If, unfortunately, you failed one of the semesters of English 1 then you are going to have to make that particular semester up before you can progress on to English 2.  Students who failed a semester will be able to make up the course either by repeating the class in summer school, repeating the class through credit recovery or repeating the class by retaking it during your sophomore year.  The bottom line is that you must REPEAT the class in some format.

Some classes (like English) have pre-requisites that students must meet in order to move on to the next level.  Other classes, like Science and Social Studies, do not have pre-requisites to move on to the next level so we will potentially allow you to move from Physical Science to Biology or from World History to US History without first repeating the freshman year class.  Don’t misunderstand though, you will still have to repeat the class at some point, but if you are not making it up during summer school, then you will likely be taking a freshman year class during your junior year.

In order to earn sophomore status, students must have earned at least 5 credits.  To become a junior you will need 10 credits.  To be classified as a senior, you must have earned at least 15 credits.

So, if you need to repeat a class, by far, most students will do that during summer school. Summer school

Grad Requirements & Reminders

I just got home from Curriculum Night and it is always so fun to see everyone exploring the options available at WKHS. Before I get into reviewing the graduation requirements, I want to remind all students and parents of 2 important events we are offering tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, Thursday, January 22nd at 8:15am in Room 201 we will host a Senior Scholarship Seminar. This is a quick, 20 minute presentation to help get seniors moving on working on searching for scholarships.

Additionally, tomorrow evening, Thursday, January 22nd, at 7:00pm in the Auditorium we will host a College Credit Plus (CC+) presentation. This presentation is an annual requirement for all students interested in participating in CC+ classes in the upcoming school year. Please make plans to attend if you are considering taking a CC+ class next year!

Now, for graduation requirements. I know they can feel daunting for students and parents because there are so many components involved. With registration starting today, having an idea of what you need to complete for graduation is essential to selecting your classes, so I wanted to take a moment and give a quick overview of the requirements.

Basic Academic Requirements:

• 4 credits of English
• 4 credits of Math
• 3 credits of Science
• 3 credits of Social Studies
• 1/2 credit of PE (or additional elective credit if earning the PE Waiver)
• 1/2 credit of Health
• 5 credits of Electives (anything other than the classes listed above count as electives)
• 1 full year worth of Fine Art completed between grades 7-12
• Financial Literacy requirement (can be met through Personal Financial Management, Economics & Financial Literacy, Independent Living, or Financial Algebra)

Demonstrate Comptency in English and Math:
For most students this will be done by earning comptency scores of 684 or higher on the English 2 and Math 1 state End of Course tests. Students can repeat these tests as needed.

There are a range of other options for how comptency can be demonstrated, but testing is the clearest path. If you need other options, I will be working with you to identify what pathway would work and be a viable option for you in the future.

Show Readiness by earning 2 Seals:
There are 12 seals (9 state seals and 3 local seals) that students can try to earn.
All students must earn 2 seals and one of those two seals must be a state seal
If you visit the counselor website and look at the graduation requirements page there is a link to information about all of the seals. As you click on each seal you will be able to see the specific information about what is required to try to earn that seal.

Today you also received a copy of your transcript. If you or your parents want to see it now or at any other point in time, you can always review your progress by accessing Infinite Campus.

Tomorrow & Registration

Tomorrow kicks off the process for registering for classes for next school year. You will be on a very different bell schedule and then, tomorrow night, you and your parents are invited to WKHS for Curriculum Night as a chance to get more information about the various programs and opportunities available to students.

Here is tomorrow's bell schedule:

• 1st period- 8:40 - 9:20
• 2nd period- 9:25 - 10:50**
• 3rd period- 10:55 - 11:35
• 4th period- 11:40 - 12:20
• 5th period- 12:25 - 1:05
• 6th period- 1:10 - 1:50
• 7th period- 1:55 - 2:35
• 8th period- 2:40 - 3:20

** As you can see - 2nd period is very long and that is because we will be holding class assemblies for the current freshmen, sophomore and junior students to pass along information about course registration and important information you need to know to successfully select your classes.

I recognize that it feels too early to be making decisions about what you're going to take next year when students are still settling into the new semester, but the time it takes to be able to take your requests and then build a master schedule that will meet your needs is very complex.

One of the most common reactions for students (and parents) as soon as they hear that it is registration time is to panic. So please, right now, before you even receive your registration information, pause, take a deep breath and relax! Thinking about the future can feel overwhelming, but I promise that we will help you through it. This is a very hectic time of year for us dealing with far more than registration, but I want to reassure you that we are aware of the anxiety and we will get through it together.

So, let me give you a quick glimpse of what these next few weeks will include. Tomorrow will be the meeting where you’ll get the details of what you need to do to register for your classes. You will submit your course selections online through Infinite Campus starting on Friday. The deadline to submit your requests is Friday, January 30th. Counselors will meet with every student individually to review your requests. We will still be able to make adjustments to your requests at that time so if you are uncertain about something, go ahead and make your best guess on what you are thinking and then we will talk about it when we meet together.

Here are some of the key dates you’ll need to know about:

• Wednesday, January 21st: Registration materials distributed
• Wednesday, January 21st: Curriculum Night at 7:00pm – you and your parents can come to talk with the teachers and learn more about the different options available to you;
• Between now and the end of February: Individual meetings with juniors and parents as scheduled
• Friday, January 30th: Deadline to submit online course requests
• Monday, February 2nd and Tuesday, February 3rd: Individual meetings with all freshmen students during Modern World History classes
• Wednesday, February 4th and Thursday, February 5th: Individual meetings with all sophomore students during English classes
• Friday, February 27th: Counselor deadlines to be able to make any adjustments in the online system

Over the next few days, during classes, your teachers will be reviewing the different classes offered within their departments as well as talking with you individually about the courses they would recommend for you to take next year. As you talk about the classes and what your teacher recommends they may enter that information into IC for you so that you don't have to worry about signing up for those classes as they will already be on the list for you.

You will have a course selection sheet to help guide you in the different options available and you can use that sheet to make notes about your thoughts on what interests you and then you can highlight to help select your classes that you will then enter online. If you would like to hear more in depth information directly from the teachers who teach particular courses, please set up a time to talk to the teacher or come to meet with them during Curriculum Night. (Let us know if you need help finding a teacher during one of their off periods.) Don't forget that your teacher in the same department will also be able to share a lot of insight with you about the classes options within their department even if they aren't the one who teaches it.

After you have determined which courses you would like to take, please talk it over with your parents and then login and register on Infinite Campus. The online window for students will open this Friday (January 23rd at 4pm.) When you submit your course requests on Infinite Campus they will be saved automatically. You will need to be sure to submit 3 alternates. I will only use those to replace classes if your first choice selections are absolutely not possible.

Freshmen and sophomores will be meeting with us individually during your History or English classes. Juniors, you will have individual meeting times. You should have received an invitation to set up our time to meet via email so use the link to select your own meeting time during an off period that works best for you. Please be aware that some of the appointment slots for juniors will be before the online registration window closes, but you must submit your requests online before our meeting!

Also, just in case you lose any of your forms, we will have extra copies posted, along with the slides from tomorrow’s presentation and the Course Planning Handbook all available for students and parents to access on the Kilbourne Counselor website – www.wkhscounselors.com – and as of tomorrow we will have it on the home page for your convenience.

Once again, the counselors are here to help you, but I please be patient because having more than 300 students makes it hard to get to everyone all at the same time... and we ultimately have until February 27th to get everything determined and finalized.

Institutional Priorities

In my last post I wrote about dealing with deferrals and it had me thinking a lot about how colleges decide on which students they will accept or reject (or defer). There are factors you absolutely know and control - your grades, the rigor of your classes, your ACT/ SAT test scores, but there are also factors you don't have any control over which can play a large role in an admissions decision and those are their institutional priorities.

Colleges have their own needs, goals and priorities. Those who work in the offices of admission work tirelessly to try to build an incoming freshman class that meets the identified priorities (think talents, qualities, and preferences) of their respective colleges. Some of those might be mission driven and others may be based on needs identified on a shifting basis based upon the students on their campus. But here is the challenge with institutional priorities... you can't influence them. So I would encourage you to let go of that element of stress and focus on the areas you can control. And, if you get a rejection to a college after doing everything "right" know that it likely has less to do with something you are lacking and more to do with the college's institutional priorities and some other students being a better fit for those goals.

Here is a list of some common examples of institutional priorities that a particular college admissions office may receive as a target from their college leadership team:

• Recruited athletes
• Artists, Musicians, Thespians
• Underrepresented backgrounds
• First generation college students
• Geographic diversity (they like to say things like "we have students from all 50 states")
• Academic stars
• College level research with a faculty recommendation
• Major academic competition and scholarship winners
• Students applying to under-enrolled or new academic programs
• Students with special talents
• Faculty and staff children
• Legacies (parent attended the college)
• Development potential (possible future financial donors)
• Gender (males are often rarer at liberal arts colleges and women can be rarer at STEM colleges)

It is important to realize that all of these are not going to be priorities at every college. Additionally, even if you fall into one or more of these categories and it is a priority at the college where you are applying, if you don't have the academic qualifications, you're not going to automatically end up getting admitted to the school.

I hope you had a great lo

Dealing with Deferrals

One of the realities of the college admission process is that not every student will be accepted to every college. The waiting game can often be one of the more frustrating aspects. With family members and friends consistently asking, "Where are you going to college?" the uncertainty present with each "I don't know" response can be overwhelming.

Sometimes even when you hear back from the college, the answer still leaves you wondering where you stand. That is the case with a deferral. A deferral is not a "yes" and it is not a "no." It is what a college will do when they need more time to make a decision on your application.

So, what should you do if you are deferred?

One of the first steps should be to stop in and see me so that we can talk about the college decision and develop a game-plan for your next steps.

If I were trying to simplify the process, then I would suggest that you review the information communicated by the admissions office and follow their instructions. If they tell you that there are limits on what you can do, follow those. If they don't specify any guidelines, it may be beneficial to reach out and talk to the admissions rep who covers our school to learn more about where you stand and what they would like for you to do to be a more "ideal" candidate.

Almost every college who defers you will allow you to submit a letter of continued interest. This is where you will communicate any updates and information you can share with the admissions staff. In particular, let them know that of any new experiences that you have had or recent accomplishments they weren't previously aware of when you first applied. Updating them on your new activities and accomplishments through concrete examples and, when possible data, is important because it is your effort to help give the college a reason to select you and add your application to the "accepted" pile.

The counselors have also sent an updated copy of your transcript to all of the colleges who require a mid-year transcript through Common App, but if you applied in a different format or it is a school that doesn't require a mid-year transcript, then I'd suggest you requesting to have one of your updated transcripts sent.

Additionally, if you re-took your ACT or SAT exams and haven't forwarded your most recent scores to the college, request for the scores to be sent directly to the college of your choice.

You may also be able to consider other outreach efforts to communicate your strengths with the admissions office such as an additional teacher recommendation letter.  (But only do this if they will be sharing new information in their letter that wasn't already addressed in other parts of your application.) Or an additional college visit to the campus.

Although no one likes to be deferred, remember that this is not the end of the world and there is still plenty of time to communicate your strengths to the admissions committee so that you will hopefully be accepted to their school.

Searching for Scholarships

Seniors, we will be hosting a Senior Seminar on Searching for Scholarships. The workshop will take place on Thursday, January 22nd from 8:15am - 8:35am in Room 201.

This short, 20-minute presentation will be packed with information to help you explore options to be able to maximize your scholarship search process. The ultimate goal is for you to be able to make college as affordable as possible.

We are only offering 1 session of this and so we are asking for students to please RSVP if you plan on attending because space is limited. Here is the link to RSVP.

We look forward to seeing you at the Senior Scholarship Seminar next week!

College Credit Plus Night

The College Credit Plus (CC+) program is an opportunity for high school students to take college courses while still enrolled in high school. Students have the option of completing courses on a college campus, online, or at WKHS. College classes at WKHS include both classes that are taught by WKHS teachers who are eligible to serve as adjunct faculty at colleges and classes where CSCC instructors are coming to Kilbourne to teach our students.

Classes that we anticipate being taught at WKHS (dependent on enough students enrolling in them) include: Pre-Calculus, Calculus 1, English Composition 1, English Composition 2, English Literature, Intro to Psychology, Intro to Sociology, Intro to American Government, and Ethics.

There are a lot of details involved in participating in the CC+ program and students must complete and submit the paperwork before April 1st to indicate their intent to participate in the CC+ program in the following school year.  CC+ is also available for students to take classes during the summer in addition to during the school year.

In order to explain all of the details of the program and to provide you with the forms necessary, ALL students and parents interested in participating in this program must plan to attend the Academic Options night which will be held on Wednesday, January 22nd at 7:00pm in the WKHS auditorium.  This will be a joint meeting for all of the students and parents in Worthington. Every college in a 30 mile radius is invited to participate in the meeting.  

One thing that is important for students and parents to realize is that this presentation is a state requirement that you must participate in an information session. As a result, please see me if you are unable to attend this meeting so we can explore other options for sessions being provided at local colleges which you can attend if you can't make it to the Worthington meeting. Let me stress this again - this is a mandatory meeting for any students who want to participate in CC+ next year!

Credit Flexibility is another program we will highlight during the Academic Options night.  Credit flexibility allows students to earn credit based on a demonstration of subject area competency, instead of, or in combination with, completing hours of classroom instruction. Students are able to customize aspects of their learning around their interests and needs. It encourages student self-direction and motivates learners to develop new skills and fulfill their potential. Examples of credit flexibility opportunities include, but are not limited to, independent study, online learning, and demonstration of course proficiency.

If you have any interest in learning more about College Credit Plus and Credit Flexibility, please plan to join us January 22nd!

Parent Lunch & Learn: Registration

The WKHS Counselors will be hosting our next Lunch and Learn Series for parents this Friday, January 16th.  This session will provide information about the upcoming Course Registration/ Selection Process.

As a reminder, the lunch and learns are brief presentations on a particular topic over zoom during lunch time so that parents/ guardians can join and listen in from home or work while eating their lunch.  The goal is that the presentation will take about 15 minutes and then that will give about 15 minutes for any other questions that families might have that we could address as a whole group.  We are excited about this opportunity to leverage technology and to meet families where they are so that you can get the most up to date information that we can share with you.

The session will begin at noon on Friday, January 16th.  The zoom link will be emailed to all parents and we will also post it on the Counselor Website on Friday morning.

We know the idea of making sure that your son/ daughter is selecting the right courses for next year can feel overwhelming, so I hope you will make plans to join us online over zoom so we can help introduce you to the process as well as review the requirements your son/ daughter must meet in order to graduate as that is always the fundamental core of course selection.

Report Cards & Mid-Year Transcripts

I feel relatively confident that most students know how to access infinite campus to check your grades, but parents may not be looking at progress as consistently. In part this may be because they are allowing you to take responsibility for your own learning and watching as you develop independence while still in high school and part of it is that your parents are busy and infinite campus can be “out of sight, out of mind”.

Parents, with the first semester now over, I strongly encourage you to log in to Infinite Campus and see your son or daughter’s first semester grades. We do not mail report cards home, so this is the only way to be able to access the report cards.

If parents do not know their username and password, please go to www.worthington.k12.oh.us and click on the "Portal Login" button at the top of the page. You will then see a "Parent Account Recovery" option just below the login button. The next screen will ask for the login information and it provides an option to enter your e-mail address if you do not know your username and password. Please note that your email address must match the one the district has in your student’s profile. Once you submit your e-mail address, computer services will soon e-mail you with your username and password.

The online report-cards allow parents and students to assess the student's progress on an ongoing basis. As we begin the second semester this is a great opportunity for parents to ask themselves questions related to your kids grades. Are your son/ daughter's grades what you had expected? Are you pleased? Does your son or daughter need more structure or support to help them develop new skills for studying or preparing for classes? If your student is struggling to be successful one of my top suggestions is to talk to your student and to the teachers! Teachers have a good perspective on where kids stand in their class. They can help clarify on concepts that students are missing, areas for improvement, and they can provide concrete suggestions for how your son/ daughter can make changes to find success in their classes.

Counselors will be reviewing all of your grades for the semester and completing credit checks for all of our students so that we can be sure you are staying on track. It is still beneficial for you and your parents to keep track of your progress as well.

Additionally, for current seniors, now that you are half way through the year, many colleges will want to get mid-year reports of your transcript. For all of the colleges on Common App, we will upload your updated transcript automatically this coming week. If you applied through a different means other than the Common App website and your colleges want mid-year reports then you will need to request for your updated transcript being sent to the specific colleges using the online transcript request form on the Counselor Website.

Crisis/ Suicide Prevention Lines

There are times when we can feel overwhelmed, lonely, stressed, sad and hopeless.  All of these emotions are normal to experience, but when they happen to come all at the same time it can be very challenging and leave people feeling lost and desperate.

Perhaps you or someone you know have had times with that type of darkness and possibly even experienced suicidal thoughts.  It is important to know that there is ALWAYS help available!  Reaching out for support is a critical step in helping to give yourself the hope that you will not always feel the way you might be feeling right now.

If you are having suicidal thoughts while at school, I hope you will come to tell me or share that information with another adult that you trust.  If you are away from school, I hope that you will reach out to your parents or some other adult who your trust.  But I know that sometimes the people closest to us can miss the level of pain we are experiencing and so I'd like to remind you that you can always call or text a crisis/ suicide hotline and there will be someone on the other end ready and willing to talk to you who can help brainstorm next steps.  The number to reach out to is super easy to remember - all you have to do is dial 988 and you will be connected to a counselor who can help.

Additionally, in recognition of how much our society has grown to depend on text messaging as a means of communication, there is also a crisis text line where you can reach out for help and support in addition to the 988 number. And, for the record - you can text to 988. To contact the crisis text line you can send a message to 741741.  You can send them any message to get the conversation started.  And I know that it can be hard to even know where to start so remember, you can always reach out even with just one word such as "4hope" (which helps connect you to someone in Ohio) or even "help or hello" and before you know it you will be communicating via text with someone else who understands what you are experiencing and is ready and able to help you.

The most important reminder I would like to leave you with is that YOU MATTER!  You are not alone - there is always someone who would like to have the opportunity to talk with you and to help you.  If you are having thoughts of suicide, PLEASE, reach out for help today!

DACC Application Reminder

I wanted to remind all sophomore and junior students who are interested in the Delaware Area Career Center that the priority application deadline is THIS FRIDAY!

The application is online and available for you to complete now: https://www.delawareareacc.org/o/dacchs/page/high-school-admissions

Remember, this is a competitive process to be accepted, but one of the best steps you can do for yourself is to apply by Friday so that you get the optimal level of consideration for one of their spots.

If you have any questions about DACC and their application, feel free to stop and see me!

Tomorrow's Alumni Day Schedule

Did today feel tiring to you? Perhaps it is just me being old, but wow, I am exhausted after our first day back. I hope you had a good day though.

Tomorrow we are welcoming back a small group of alumni to share their perspectives, insights and experiences with students and so we will be on a different bell schedule. The alumni presentation will take place in the auditorium during a 2A/ 2B schedule. This schedule is below for your reference.

1st period: 8:40-9:19

2nd period and assembly: 9:24 - 10:56

3rd period: 11:01 - 11:40

4th period: 11:45 - 12:24

5th period: 12:29 - 1:08

6th period: 1:13 - 1:52

7th period: 1:57 - 2:36

8th period: 2:41 - 3:20

Happy New Year

** First, I want to remind anyone reading this blog site that I have discontinued the automatic email posts coming from this site. You can sign up to have the posts sent to you automatically from the new blog site - www.wkhscounselors.wordpress.com. I have written and sent 3,951 blog posts since launching this site... which is pretty crazy. I appreciate all of the students and families as well as colleagues who have followed along the way. The new site is simply a way for all WKHS students and families to gather the information and not just "my" families. So please, join us there. And know that I appreciate you still coming back to read the updates.**

Happy New Year! 2026... I wonder how many times I will write 2025 out of habit and if that will continue beyond the month of January. (History would tell me that the answer will be I'll write the wrong date often and far into the year...) But here we are, ready to roll with the 2nd semester and a full 5 day week to get us right back into things.

I hope that you had a restful break and that you're feeling ready to be back at school... or at least ready to see your friends, teachers and classmates again! I haven't been awake even remotely close to "school time" throughout all of break so I am anticipating that waking up in the morning will be rough. I suspect I'm not alone in that concern.

One of the exciting aspects about returning to school tomorrow that I am looking forward to is seeing the new library space and the new Student Services office area - both of which are expected to be back up and running tomorrow. I think those areas being open is going to make our school seem WAY less like a construction zone than it has in the past. I believe that the athletic training room, sports lockers, and music wing addition are the big spaces that the construction teams will be continuing to work on in the 2nd semester - so that is a much smaller area of impact than what we have seen previously. Yay!

In addition to checking out the new spaces of the school, be sure to check Infinite Campus to see which of your semester long classes have changed and where you'll be going for all of the new classes. I know that there is always a lot of uncertainty about how much you will or will not like your classes or the timing of your lunch period and who you will know in the classes or in your lunches. Just try to go into tomorrow with an open mind and hopefully you'll find that you love your schedule. If you don't, remember that you will need to do a schedule change form. These forms are available on the Counselor Website for you to download or you can pick up a form from the front of the Counseling Center - it is on the black shelves to the left of the front entrance near the secretaries. Those forms are required for any year-long classes that you are going to drop and any other significant changes that you are trying to make.

Seniors, remember, you need to think VERY hard about making any schedule changes that could be seen by the colleges as changing your level of rigor from your application. The colleges asked for your senior year schedule because the classes you are taking matter to them. If you decide that you are going to change your schedule, please be sure to double check with each of the colleges to let them know about your planned schedule change and confirm with them that it will not negatively impact your admissions decision BEFORE you make a change to your schedule.

Looking forward to seeing you all and hearing both about your break and what you're hoping for in the new year!