The counseling department capitalizes on educating parents, involving them in the college selection process as early as freshman year. This has become increasingly prevalent in the previous two years when the counseling department changed its system to form better relationships with students and parents.

As a part of the college process, the counselors have annual meetings with parents in order to work with them in guiding students through high school. This begins with an individual meeting the counselors have with the students and their parents freshman year to help understand the opportunities that high school has. After a couple of meetings with underclassman students, the parents become involved in meetings with the counselor and student individually again as a part of the planning process to prepare for college.

The counselors decided to involve the parents early because the college process can be intimidating, and the counselors want to give the families time to prepare for it This is especially true with regards to finances for college, so that parents understand how to find scholarships and make sure their children have options that they can afford if the scholarships don’t work out. “Starting out from the beginning, where we can say ‘Here’s what it takes to get into these types of colleges that you’re thinking about, here’s what it takes to get scholarships at colleges,’ for those that are really interested in that information is so much better than waiting until junior year… because by then it’s too late,” counselor Ms. Amanda Anderson said.

Most importantly, the counselors want to develop a relationship with the students and their parents. Since the counselors get to work with the same group of students and parents from freshman to senior year, they develop a relationship that allows them to work more effectively. “If a student’s not doing well… parents feel comfortable contacting us, we feel comfortable contacting them, [it’s] kind of a team partnership…. We’re kind of the go-to people for both the students and the parents,” Anderson said.