National College Decision Day

Seniors, by now you should all be well aware of the fact that tomorrow, Friday, May 1st, is national college decision day. The colleges are all united in the fact that they will not require you to make decisions about where you will attend prior to May 1st, but this is one of the deadlines that is firm.

As you are aware, throughout the college application process each college has their own timeline and often have different application deadlines, financial aid deadlines, and announce their admission decisions at different times, but May 1st is a universal deadline among all colleges requiring students to declare their decision. Please remember this not only means that you have informed the college of your choice that you intend to attend their college, but it also typically includes submitting a deposit.

As you reach the final hours of your decision making window, if you need to talk out your choice with someone, please feel free to stop in and talk to us. Remember to trust yourself. You will make the decision that is right for you!

Next Year's Schedule

Mrs. Travis (in partnership with the rest of the WKHS administrators) has been working on the master schedule for next year. They have determined where each class will be held during the school day to meet the most student requests possible. This includes running your requests through the computer to try to match as many of the requests as possible between what you had asked for and what is possible in the computers. As of this week, they have officially "locked" the master schedule into place. 

Unfortunately, now that the schedule is locked it becomes crazy for the counselors as we go through each of the schedules that didn't match and try to figure out if there is a solution and what possible options we can use to make a schedule fit together. We will spend hours pouring over schedules and will have to call down some of you to talk about back up choices based upon the conflicts in your schedule. This is never easy and we know it is disappointing when you don't get all of the classes that you wanted, so we promise that we are doing the best we can to make everything work together.

We are starting the process of calling kids down regarding conflicts. If in the coming days, you get an email or pass to come see us during your lunch, off period or between periods, we are asking you to please make every effort to come at the day and time we are calling for you so we can look at your schedule together. (And that specific timing is when we think we should be able to fit you in without making you wait for long.) You don't want us to be the one to make those tough choices for you so we really do need to meet and look at the options together.

Inevitably, when everyone hears that the schedule is locked, students will be curious about the schedule and what their classes will look like for next year. We are more than happy to talk about this with you, but not until all of the conflicts are resolved. So, we ask you to please be patient with us and wait until the last week of school (week of exams) to try to come and get a sneak peek at what your schedule will hopefully be for next year. (Full disclosure though, all schedules are 100% up for revision and changes based on whatever has to happen with the master schedule as the summer progresses.)

Making College Lists

Having a good, solid, balanced, reasonable college list that meets your needs academically, socially and financially is an essential part of the college application process. Juniors, it is time for you to be actively working on building that perfect (for you) college list.

To support students and parents in this process we have a Junior Seminar coming up this week focused on building your college lists.

On Thursday, April 30th, we will host the final Junior Seminar of this year in Room 201 from 8:15-8:35am to talk about finalizing your college list.

We hope you will make plans to join us on Thursday!

AP and IB Exams

Over the next few weeks many WKHS students will be taking Advanced Placement and IB Exams. The AP and IB exams are held on designated days and will be in varying locations. I know many of you have been spending an extraordinary amount of time studying to prepare for the exams. Good Luck!  You will do great! Remember, you have spent the whole year learning all of the content that you need to know in order to take the tests to hopefully earn the college credit. 

Additionally, I want to remind you that IB exams begin at 8:30am and AP exams start at 8:00am. That means all students who will be taking AP tests next week need to make arrangements to arrive to school by 7:30am for morning AP tests. You will then get checked in and ready to go for testing to start promptly at 8:00am. Since this is different than our typical normal schedule you will want to make sure you have a plan for getting to school because the buses won't have you to school on time.  Also, since that is an hour earlier than you are probably arriving to school normally, it wouldn't be a bad idea to start waking up a little earlier so that your body (and brain) is prepared for the earlier start next week.

Mandatory Graduation Form

On Friday, all seniors received an information link for the Senior Information Questionnaire that we need for you to complete and submit prior to May 4th.

Every year, the graduating high school seniors have the option of picking a teacher, coach, administrator, counselor, secretary, or other Worthington staff member who has played a significant role in their lives to give them their diploma.  This is one of my favorite traditions at Kilbourne!  It is a way to make the graduation ceremony much more personal and memorable.  You will select your 1st choice and 2nd choice diploma presenters on the form.

The form also allows you to request where you want us to send your final transcript.  When you head off to college or enlist in the military, they will all want a copy of your final transcript to confirm that you did officially graduate.  The information you submit on the form is what will enable us to make sure we send your transcript to the appropriate location.

We are busy working on preparing for the senior recognition and commencement ceremonies and we need additional information from you in order to put together the programs!  As you complete the senior questionnaire you will be asked to list what scholarships you received and are accepting and how much they were worth.

And finally, the form also allows for you to share some thoughts about your reflections related to high school because we value the insight and perspectives that our seniors share each year.

These forms are due back ASAP, but no later than May 4th.

If you have updates/ changes after you have submitted your form - such as you received an additional scholarship, please email that new scholarship information to Mrs. Focht at afocht@wscloud.org.  We will try our best to include your updated scholarships in the program, but it is possible that information received after May 4th may not be able to be included if the program.

Prom

Tonight is prom night for WKHS juniors and seniors. This is an exciting and memorable night for students and I hope you have a great evening. Let's be honest, I also hope that it is a safe evening! You want prom to be memorable because it was a positive experience...

Hopefully you are looking forward to a fun night at both prom and at After-Hours. 

One last reminder about safety - please remember to talk with your parents before you leave tonight about what you will do if you end up in an unexpected situation and need help. Have a good time - be smart and please be safe!

Tomorrow's Bell Schedule

We are on a very unique bell schedule tomorrow. The day will include a pep rally at the end of 6th period to kick-off prom weekend with the Powderpuff football game and a celebration of the spring sports athletes.

Here is the bell schedule:

• 1st: 8:40-9:19
• 2nd: 9:24-10:12
• 3rd: 10:17-10:56
• 4th: 11:01-11:40
• 5th: 11:45-12:24
• 6th: 12:29-1:08
• Pep Rally: 1:08-1:49
• 7th: 1:57-2:36
• 8th: 2:41-3:20

It's going to be a fun day and I hope that you will lean into the enjoyment of the festivities of the day.