Update 11/24/12:  Thanksgiving already???  That was fast!  When we come back from Thanksgiving vacation we will have only three weeks before Christmas break.  That means, students, do all you can to lift your grades! 

 

Since my initial statement below, Mrs. Thomson-Bott has retired as of the end of first quarter.  It took a little while but we were able to enlist Mrs. Dawn Tillery, long time teacher and Hilo High Alum, into the ranks of counselors.  She has taken over the 10th graders and is doing a fantastic job!  She'll be with us for the rest of the year and we'll see after that.  She's a natural born counselor and we'd love to be able to keep her!

 

That's about it for now.  I've got to move on to updating other pages here, particularly the scholarship page.  Got to keep that up for the Class of 2013!  They can't believe how fast the year is going by!  Neither can I...

 

 

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My how time flies!  Here we are again starting another year!  Each presents it own opportunities and challenges and each seems to pass too quickly as well.

 

What's new for this year?  Well, Ms. Jennifer Kanhai, last year's junior counselor, has moved with her class (as is the custom here at Hilo High) and is now the senior counselor!  She has also moved to the Counseling Center which is in A-2 where she and her students will have all those resources available to them.  By the way, Ms. Kanhai's phone extension  has changed to x2239.

 

Mrs. Yamauchi is now the junior counselor though she remains in the same room, AA-15B.  Her phone extension remains x2246.

 

For the sophomore class there has been a little difficulty in that Mrs. Thomson-Bott has been out due to illness.  This is a tough time to lose her, but fortunately Mrs. Melissa Mitsuda agreed to step in until August 10th.  Mrs. Mitsuda's phone extension is x2388.  By that time we hope to have a better idea of the status of Mrs. Thomson-Bott and we'll proceed as the situation dictates.  Sophomore students and parents, we appreciate your patience.

 

Which brings us to the freshmen!  It's my privilege, after having the senior classes of 2011 and 2012, to loop back and take over the Class of 2016!  And after one week, I'm happy to report that this class is looking great!  I realized Friday that this class includes the last of the students that I knew when I was the counselor at Keaukaha Elementary School.  After this, the kids coming up from there won't know me anymore (sniffle).  It's really been great to see the students from Keaukaha again as they come up to Hilo High.  I'm in the Career Development Center, Room A-1, and you can reach me at x2238.

 

This time of year is always dominated by scheduling issues.  The counselors and registrar, Mr. Lynol Oda, spent a good deal of time this summer checking to make sure that everything a student needed toward graduation was on their schedule from the get-go. 

 

Just so everyone is clear, there are a limited number of reasons for which Hilo High will allow schedule changes.  These are spelled out in the registration guide.  Generally, if there was a real mistake in which a student has two of the same courses on their schedule, a class which they have already taken or missing a core class altogether (and there aren't many of these), we try to make those changes first. 

 

Beyond those reasons, if students have courses on their schedule which they requested at registration, no change will be made.  The reason is that the master schedule of courses is based on the courses requested on the registration form.  Changes made after the master schedule is built lead to imbalances in class sizes, e.g. some classes become overfilled and some shrink so far that we probably wouldn't have made the course in the first place.  So that's the reason for Hilo High's policy.

 

Students who expect to come in the fall, look around, and request schedule changes, often for dubious reasons, will be disappointed.  If the course was on their registration and the school provided it, short of a reason mentioned in the registration guide, no schedule change will be allowed. 

 

Since so much time was spent checking schedules, I'm not anticipating the need for too many changes.  However, If you do have a schedule which is missing a period, two of the same courses or any of those issues mentioned in the registration guide, students, please see your counselor as soon as can.

 

Here's to a happy and sane opening of the new school year!

 

Aloha!!!