The high school made the shift from two to four counselors at the beginning of the school year.
The four counselors this year are David Leland, Stephanie Krosnosky, Sara Revetta and Claudia Fugate.
Leland was one of the general counselors last year, Krosnosky was the college counselor last year and Fugate and Revetta are both in their first year.
The new system will have all four be general counselors as well as college counselors, opposed to last year where there were two for general concerns and one for college, Fugate said. She explained that the decision for the change was originally proposed by the counseling department with the help of the administration, and then it was sent to the Board of Education where it was approved.
Revetta said that the change was made to better fit the needs of students so they could stay with one counselor all four years and allow them to go through the college process with someone they have a connection with.
“Being able to work through the process with one person from grade nine to 12 is really beneficial to the student and to the counselor because you’ve built that relationship for four years,” Leland said.
The people who this change will affect the most are likely going to be the senior class, Krosnosky said, because they have been with the old system the longest and had already begun the college process when the change was made.
One concern some expressed was how the new counselors would handle the college process, Leland said, but they feel confident in their ability in part because of their collaboration with fellow counselors.
He added that the people who will benefit the most are the incoming freshmen since they now have one counselor for their whole high school career.
Fugate said students will most benefit from this change by being able to meet with their counselor more. One of the biggest benefits of this change is that students will be able to access their counselor more easily since they all have smaller caseloads as opposed to years past, Krosnosky explained.
Senior Calvin Burzynski expressed satisfaction with the change.
“I like the new system,” he said. “Now I can work with Leland for college and I already know him since he’s been my counselor for the past few years.”
Sophomore Dylan Ryan agreed.
“I think it’s a good change,” he said. “More counselors mean that students can get more individual help when they need it.”
Fugate is optimistic about the success of the new system.
“We’re hopeful that having four counselors doing a little bit of everything that students can get more one-on-one time with their counselors,” she said.
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