Frequently Asked Questions

Is LFHS eliminating college counseling?

No, the high school is restructuring to provide a high level of support to all of our families. Based on the findings of our study teams of counselors, administrators, and parents, the district believes that this restructuring will provide greater personalization for both students and parents and enhance the admissions connections to a greater number of colleges– ultimately an improved service for all.

What are the changes being considered for the LFHS’ college counseling program?

Following a yearlong study by the Post High School Planning Committee (Dr. Julie Cooley, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services, Dr. Merry Quinn, Director of Student Services, Jacquie Berkshire, College Counselor, Barbara Selvaggio, Counselor, Robert Wagemann, Counselor, Kathy O'Hara, Service Learning Coordinator, Sandy Horan, Special Education Teacher and Transition Coordinator), recommendations have been made to reorganize the current college counseling program to provide a more personalized and individualized resource to all students. The program would be expanded to include all counselors to serve as college and career counselors - to the group of students they advise for 4 years. This will mean that LFHS will have 7 college and career counselors. LFHS has a veteran group of counselors who have been advising students in the college process for many years. (They collectively have a total of 117 years experience counseling students with the college process.) 70% of our students (approx 700 respondents over a 2 year period) currently rely on their own counselor as resource and when surveyed students designate their counselor as a “most helpful” resource. Of significant note, our existing counselors are highly qualified and experienced could be hired as “college counselors” in any school in Illinois.Importantly, our student population has grown significantly over the past years (23% since 2000), couple that with the increased demands on colleges and universities – All of our counseling staff currently does a great job – but the district saw a distinct need to provide a more personalized service to our students and developed stronger relationships with more admissions offices. LFHS’s current system provides one college counselor for 850 students (seniors and juniors). The restructuring will be much more aligned with neighboring schools college counseling programs. Ratios:

• New Trier 1:250 students (2-year relationship with students)
• Stevenson 1:800 (2-year relationship with students)
• Proposed LFHS 1:125 (4-year relationship with students) – Note our counselors will have a total caseload freshmen-seniors of approximately 250 students)

Additionally, our counselors are currently providing college counseling services to 70% of our students and have the added benefit of developing 4-year relationships with their students, this system allows Lake Forest to be able to stay connected throughout the course of a student’s development and be able to share that knowledge with colleges – beginning with student contact in middle school. The new configuration also provides a stronger “face of Lake Forest” to more schools. It is difficult, if not impossible, for one person to have strong relationships with every school across the nation. Divide that by 7 and LFHS’s number and quality of school connections grows exponentially.

Does the Board of Education vote on this or is it a decision made by the administration?

The administration is responsible for designing any reconfigurations. The Board recieves the staffing plans (May) and the Board approves the budget (June) to support the services.

Is it already decided or are you still considering whether to make the change?

The administration is in the process of analyzing all the data and fine-tuning the details of proposed modifications to the college counseling system. Part of that is listening to parent input at a variety of opportunities. The counselors have also been meeting weekly to discuss changes.

How and when was this information announced?
In the spring of 2009, LFHS established an objective to research and evaluate college and post-high school planning. All senior parents and students were invited to participate in surveys in 2008 and 2009. The committee’s recommendations were emailed to all parents (registered to receive school news approx 1,400 emails) and placed on the website March 11, 2010. The dates for 2 parent informational sessions (April 7 and 8) were announced at that time – plus contact info for questions at any time. Information was sent to the Tribune and Lake Forester announcing the meetings. Reminders and repeat of info was sent out 3/19 and again after spring break 4/1 through school communications. An evening session was also added - April 15. Information was also presented at our School Liaison Committee on April 12, at the April 13 Board of Education meeting, and at the April Education meeting. Numerous Education Committee reports also included updates on this topic throughout the year at Board of Education meetings.

Were all parents and students invited to the focus groups? How many parents and students participated in the focus groups?

Focus groups were designed to delve deeper into information reported by 2 years of senior student surveys and a senior parent survey in 2009. The goal was to randomly select students and parents to represent about 10% of each group. While the goal was approximately 40 to 50 students and a similar number of parents, we could not get that number of volunteers. E-mails were sent to students twice and personal random invitations were given out in the Publick Room – in the end 25 students participated in 3 focus groups. E-mail invites were also sent to parents, first to a random selection of about 100 parents and then eventually to over 200 parents. 35 parents volunteered for the focus groups, we also had a 6-member Parent Advisory group. The Parent Advisory met several times for approximately 6 to 8 hours and gave in-depth information. Parent Advisory members included past and present parent leaders (APT presidents) and a Board of Education (parent) committee member.

Is the proposed change to college counseling at LFHS a budgetary decision?
Budgetary constraints or considerations were not a factor that influenced the committee or parent advisory recommendations. Budgets were never discussed. When the administrative team met to translate the recommendations into an action plan, it was learned that a counselor planned to retire. The re-organization would have gone forward with 8 counselors, but was also possible with 7 (ratios remain competitive – see above). Given the seriousness of the economic conditions, it was the fiscally responsible way to proceed. Reductions have been made in all departments across the high school with a goal to maintain the high schools exemplary programs and services.

One of the concerns being raised by parents is that no other school on the North Shore has a system that LFHS is proposing. Is this true?

As part of the re-organization, LFHS will have 7 college and career counselors. The only north shore area school that has more is New Trier, which has 8 (for more than double the student population of LFHS). Neither LFHS nor New Trier will have “generalist counselors.” One important difference between New Trier and LFHS is that LFHS College and Career counselors will begin a relationship with their counselees in middle school. Currently, New Trier, students don’t meet their college counselor until junior year. New Trier students also meet with teacher/advisors. The remainder of high schools on the North Shore has either 1 or 2 college counselors. There are other nuances to each system -- so not an “apples to apples” comparison. Another important layer of resource at LFHS are the CORE Teams. CORE Teams are composed of a counselor, dean, social worker, and assigned psychologist for every student. This is an excellent platform in which to seek out additional support from other knowledgeable and alternatively trained staff members who are optimally suited to directly support a student. This system adds an added layer of personalization to further assist our students. Regardless of who the counselor of recorded is students will have access to any of the other counselors for college planning purposes. This is predicated on a strong team based collaborative approach to ambitiously support students in all their academic endeavors.

I heard that under the new system, counselors would have 250 students. How does that compare to the current model?

Under the current model, LFHS has 1 college counselor to 1,750 students. Even if the primary focus is junior and senior year the ratio is about 1 to 850. Under the planned re-organization, each counselor will have approximately 250 total students with about 120 of these students juniors and seniors. Additionally, current duties of the counselors are being reduced or streamlined in other ways to allow for a specialization on academic counseling. This translates into a greatly expanded college-counseling program. These include: greater use of technology in student scheduling and transcripts, reduction of other specific paperwork requirements, the use of 2 high quality interns (for support purposes), and reliance on 4 social workers and deans to support social emotional programs formerly assigned to counselors.

How does this ratio compare to other schools?
Our student: counselor rations are competitive or lower than most schools in Illinois.
In summary….
Every counselor at LFHS is a high quality individual and does a great job, but our system needs to change if we are to provide quality support to every student. Our responsibility is to provide a high level of support to all of our families. Based on the findings of our study teams of counselors, administrators, and parents, the district believes that this restructuring will provide greater personalization for both students and parents and enhance the admissions connections to a greater number of colleges– ultimately an improved service for all.

To learn more click here to view the web-portfolio, a collection of documents used by the Post High School Planning Committee.