Financial Aid Night

We are less than a week away from October 1st and, for seniors, this is a very significant day.  The FAFSA which helps determine how much financial aid a student can qualify for will open on October 1st.  The FAFSA for current high school seniors will be based upon the 2020 tax returns.  You can access the FAFSA here:  https://fafsa.ed.gov/

When students and parents are completing the FAFSA, you will each need to have an FSAID number.  This number will allow you to electronically sign your FAFSA and in the future it would let you sign promissory notes as well as complete future FAFSA's.

The student and parent will each create their own separate numbers.  You cannot use the same e-mail addresses for the creation of the numbers so if you don't have an e-mail address and have been using your parents e-mail in the past then this is the ideal time to create your own e-mail account.  And students, please remember that you should NOT use your school email account either.

You will make your own challenge questions to help you access your number if you forget it in the future so it is important to write down those challenge questions and answers to make sure you will remember it down the road.  I recommend that students and parents make a folder related to FAFSA where you store all of this information so that you will always have it when you might need it.

If you forget to create an FSAID number prior to completing your FAFSA, it will still have a link for you to be able to go back and create one, but ideally you should create it ahead of time.

Here is a link to create your FSAID numbers:  https://fsaid.ed.gov/npas/index.htm

To help you with the college financial aid process we will have a Financial Aid Meeting coming up this week for parents at 7:00pm on October 7th.  We are fortunate enough to have Faith Phillips, a financial aid director for OSU Newark and COTC, sharing her expertise with our parents and students.  She always has useful insight and is able to present it in engaging ways that will help you in completing your financial aid application.  This presentation will take place live over Zoom on October 7th so we hope you will join us.

Grade Point Average

Yesterday I mentioned that the deadline to change classes to pass/ fail grading is coming up next week.  But then I was thinking that some of you may not understand the impact of pass/ fail grading and how GPA works overall.

The "easy" explanation for how your GPA is calculated is that every class you take at WKHS taught by a Kilbourne teacher with traditional grading is computed into your GPA.  Some students begin taking high school courses while still in middle school.  Those grades will appear on your transcript, but they are not calculated into your GPA.  This is done to assist you because many times middle school students haven't recognized the impact that their grades have on their high school GPA and the long-term impact on their future college applications.  Additionally, any classes that you pass that were taken as pass/ fail appear on your transcript but will not be calculated in your GPA.  So, if you think you might pass, but not do great in the class, you could elect to change the course to pass/ fail grading.  (That is, assuming the class is offered as a pass/ fail option - you will mostly just find this with introductory level electives and not with core courses.)

All regular and honors classes are unweighted which means that they are all based on a 4.0 scale.  AP, IB and CC+ courses are weighted on a scale of 1.25.  Below is a chart that shows how GPA is calculated.

Letter Grades	Percentage	GPA Scale	AP/ IB/ CC+ Weighted Calculation	AP/ IB/ CC+ Weighted GPA
A	90 – 100%	4.0	4.0 x 1.25	5.00
B	80 – 89%	3.0	3.0 x 1.25	3.75
C	70 – 79%	2.0	2.0 x 1.25	2.50
D	60 – 69%	1.0	1.0 x 1.25	1.25
F	0 – 59%
S	Satisfactory
P	Passing

All classes are granted credit based upon the semester.  This means that when you pass the 1st semester you have earned that credit and it is computed into your grade point average.  Each semester class is worth 1/2 a credit excluding physical education courses which are worth 1/4 a credit.  So, if you earn a B in the first semester of English 1 and a C in the first semester of Physical Science, then your GPA for these two semesters of classes would equal a 2.5.  Plusses and Minuses in your grades are still calculated based upon the base grade as we don't have different GPA weights for a B+ vs a B or B-.

It is important to know that some students have taken classes at other schools and are transferring their credit to WKHS.  Those classes will also appear on your transcript with the grades, but are not computed into your GPA.  This is because your Kilbourne GPA will just reflect your Kilbourne classes - any classes you took in another district or an online school will have the GPA that you earned at that school.  So, for example, if you transferred to WKHS from a surrounding district, your classes and grades will be transferred over to Kilbourne, but they won't be included in your Kilbourne GPA.  This means that students will not have a grade point average until after a semester at WKHS.  The reason that this is important is that some students have transferred from schools that have different grading scales and it doesn't allow equitable comparisons.  When students are applying to college you will submit both of your transcripts so that they have the complete picture of your grade point average.

You can see a copy of your transcript on Infinite Campus and it also shows your grade point average.  If you have any questions about your GPA, stop by and see me.

Pass/ Fail & Drop Deadline

I wanted to make sure that all of you were aware that the last date to drop a 1st semester course without having it appear on your transcript is 1 week away - next Wednesday, September 29th. That is also the last date to submit a request to have a 1st semester class graded on a pass/ fail scale instead of the standard scoring. Please make sure that your requests for these options are turned into the counseling center before the school day ends next Wednesday!

Welcome to WKHS

Last week we hosted a breakfast to welcome the students who are new to the district to the Worthington Kilbourne High School community.  We wanted to take the opportunity to check in on how the new students are adjusting to life at WKHS and hear more about where they moved here from as well as what they like or dislike.  It was a great way to start the day!

There are nearly 70 students who are new to the district at WKHS this year.  Many of them are from within Ohio, but we also have new students from South America and the Middle East - not to mention our foreign exchange students who come from several different countries across the world.  Each of these students brings knowledge of their past communities that will strengthen and enrich our school.

As we listened to these newest Kilbourne Wolves, I was excited that they are a part of our school because they have so much to contribute.  Be sure to take a moment and find one of them in your classes, lunch, sports, or clubs and welcome them to WKHS.

Planning for College Night

Save the date!  On Wednesday, September 29th the WKHS Counseling department will be hosting a Student and Parent College Planning Information Night. The meeting will be over zoom, but we will be doing it live so I am really hoping you will attend.  Over the last few years, this program has received some of the best feedback out of all of the information nights we host. The students and parents who attended this meeting in the past have expressed how much this helped them get started and move forward with the college search process and developed a better understanding of what to expect along the way.  The meeting is primarily targeted at juniors, but sophomores and freshmen are welcome to attend if interested. The meeting is at 7:00pm and the zoom link will be posted on the counselor website the morning of the event. 

I hope you will plan to attend! And yes, I want your parents to watch this meeting with you and no, I don't want you to just make your parents watch instead... this is YOUR future and you are responsible for deciding what direction you will take.

Parent/ Teacher Conferences

Parents, if you are interested in arranging to meet with one of your son or daughter’s teachers during conferences, the online system will open tomorrow morning for you to register for a meeting slot.  Conferences will be scheduled as people sign up for them, so if you want to make sure you have times that work well for you, I strongly encourage you to register right away.  

Conferences will be held on Wednesday, September 29th from 5:00 - 9:00pm and on Tuesday, October 5^th from 3:30 - 7:30pm.  Each conference will be scheduled in 15 minute time blocks.  Conferences allow parents the chance to learn about your student’s classroom performance from the teachers, it allows the opportunity for you to ask questions and they provide an opportunity to build a dialogue with the teachers regarding any thoughts and concerns you might have.  Conferences will be in person unless you want to request a zoom conference in which case the teachers can easily make that option work as well.

Please follow the steps below to register for a parent/ teacher conference:

- Follow this link to take you to the conference scheduler:  http://ptcfast.com/schools/Worthington_Kilbourne_High_School 

-  Click on the teacher you would like to meet with for a conference.

-  Sign up by entering your child's last name, first name, your name and your e-mail address and then click Submit.

-  The next screen will direct you to check your e-mail inbox for a message with the subject "Select Date/ Team for Teacher Conference Now."

-  Open the e-mail and click on the link to select a conference time.  If you do not receive an e-mail, please check your junk/ spam folder.  Please note, you MUST follow the link in the e-mail in order to complete the sign-up process.

-  The link will take you to a Time Picker.  Available time slots will appear on this page.  If there are no available appointments that suit your schedule, please e-mail the teacher directly to set up an alternate meeting time.

-  After submitting your time slot, you will be prompted to finish, schedule another appointment for the same student or register another student.  Once you have completed your reservations, you will receive an e-mail confirming the date and time of your conferences and a link by which you can make changes to your date or time if you need to do so.

If you have any problems using the online conference registration system, please contact Sharon DeSantis at WKHS.  She can be reached by e-mail at sdesantis@wscloud.org or by phone at 614-450-6400.

Infinite Campus/ Interims

Can you believe we are already at the half-way point of the first quarter?  In many ways it feels like we just got started.  We don't send home formal interim reports because you and your parents have the opportunity to check your grades on an ongoing basis through Infinite Campus.  But, since we are about half way through, this is the time when you are able to get a good feel for how you are doing in each of your classes.  I strongly suggest that you take a look at your grades and make sure you are on track for the quarter.

Hopefully you and your parents know how to access Infinite Campus which is the system that has your schedules, attendance, grades, and transcripts.  Your teachers are updating their grades at least once a week so that you can check and have an ongoing update for how you are doing in each class.  This continual information provides you with the chance to celebrate if you are doing well and to identify what you might need to change if you are not meeting your own expectations for the goals you had set for the year.

One challenge for me is that I cannot see the same things you see when you look at Infinite Campus.  I have heard students say the program is a bit more difficult to use on the computer, but that for people with smart phones, the free app from Infinite Campus is very easy to use and is a great tool.  If you are interested in downloading and using the free Infinite Campus app, you will need to know that the District Code is: YCWTRL

If you haven't figured out how to access Infinite Campus at all, please visit the Worthington Website at www.worthington.k12.oh.us and then you will click on the Portal Login Icon that is located in the "Find it Fast" section of the page.