By Dana Sternthal
Staff Writer
Costa administration has decided to hold four-year planning workshops throughout October for parents who want to know more about the four-year plan process.
Four-year plans are sketches of the courses students plans to take during their years at Costa. The plan allows counselors to meet freshmen one-on-one and will make sure that all “a-g” requirements will be met by students.
“We’ve done four-year plans with freshmen every year after first semester grades, but not workshops,” Costa guidance counselor Jennifer Woodie said. “The students get to see their transcript, go over it, and we go over their plan for their high school career with them.”
Woodie hopes that four-year plan workshops will encourage students to think about college and the high school courses needed to get there.
“We want to get them thinking about college,” Woodie said. “Things change all the time, and students won’t necessarily follow their plans, but the plans are meant to get freshmen thinking about their decided goals and future prospects.”
Costa decided to offer these workshops when parents began asking for more information about the process of four-year plans. Five workshops are scheduled from Oct. 10-29, and one can sign up through the school website.
“The workshops are for parents who want more information,” Principal Dr. Ben Dale said. “Staff will be there, guidance counselors and administration are going to give information, and all freshmen are meeting with their guidance counselors for their four-year plan in the spring.”
Students are not strictly held to their plans they create in freshman year.
“It allows freshmen to look at the next three and a half years and make decisions about their passions,” Dale said. “However, sometimes four-year plans can be negative because students might want to change paths in high school.”
Many freshmen agree that a better understanding of the process could lead to a more efficient system.
“I think it’s beneficial for parents to have this informational workshop, especially if their oldest kid is a freshman and they haven’t gone through the process before,” freshman Gianna Genova said.
Administration and guidance counselors met to solidify the workshop agenda on Oct. 8.
“We met because we needed to work out the details,” Vice Principal Jaime Mancilla said. “Several administrators and guidance counselors are working on it. I’ll be in charge of the master schedule, but the main focus will be how parents can manage the four-year plan with their children.”
With the implementation of these workshops, Costa hopes to clarify the process and importance of four-year plans to a student’s high school career.
“Whenever we take time to communicate information to students and parents it is time well spent,” Dale said.
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