Counselors will present on classes at the start of the week and register requests at the end of the week. The middles of the week are reserved for registration questions from parents and students of the current grade level registering.
Grade 12 Registration (current Junior students) Week of February 4th
February 4th– Distribute materials in US History classes
February 8th– Register with counselors in Library
Grade 11 Registration (current Sophomore students) Week of February 19th
February 18th– No school
February 19th– Distribute materials in Biology classes
February 19th- Soph Students not in Bio 1 will meet 4th period in the library
February 22th– Register with counselors in Library
Grade 10 Registration (current Freshman students) Week of February 25th
February 25th– Distribute materials in World Cultures classes
March 1st – Register with counselors in Library
Grade 9 Registration (current 8th-grade students) Week of March 4th
March 4th- CHS Counselors Present in CRA Classrooms
March 6th- 8th Grade Visit- CHS 8:30-10:30
March 7th- Parent Night CHS Auditorium 6 pm
March 8th- CHS Counselors pick up registration materials.
**If you are Registering a student who will be new to the Helena School District please also click the following link to access the school/district registration paperwork.
Dear Students and Parents,
The next couple of months are a very busy time in the counseling department. We would like to share what we have upcoming so you can plan ahead in your calendar and know what we are working on to assist your students.
Schedule Changes for Semester 2
1/22/18 The 1st day of the new semester- Students wanting to make schedule changes for the new semester have until 2/1/18 to get them signed off and finalized. All changes require teacher and parent signatures. Students can choose to change to classes that are offered for S2. Changing of instructors only is not permitted by the counseling department. In addition, going less than 6 credit bearing classes as a senior must be approved by Mr. Chancy. Other grades require additional meetings with admin and extenuating circumstances to be approved. For Grades 10 and 12- Mr. Chancy, for Grades 11 and 9- Mrs. Kidder.
Dual Credit Time Line
Students in S2 Dual Credit Courses (Statistics, Intro to Lit, College Writing, MS Word, MS Excel, Auto) will be given their registration forms on Thursday (1/24/18)
Registration forms are due to the counseling department on Tuesday (1/29) when the rep from Helena College will be in the counseling department from 8:30-2:00 to collect the papers. If they are not turned in during this window, students will have to deliver them to Helena College by 2/1. Bills will be sent out 2/4 and will be due to Helena College 2/22. Items that miss the deadlines will not be accepted. Also, for students who have not taken their 2 free dual credit classes, their class this semester will count for free. Additionally, we have a scholarship opportunity for students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, see Mr. Robinson for more information.
2018-2019 Class Registration
February is registration month in the counseling department, and our attention will be shifted to helping students apply for classes next year.
Junior Week- Future Senior Reg February 4-8
Monday- Class Visits by counselors (American History)
Tues-Thursday- Counselors available to answer student registration questions
Wednesday- Junior Career Fair
Wednesday- Junior Parent Night
Friday- Students register with counselors in Library
Sophomore Week- Future Junior Reg February 19-22
Tuesday- Class Visits by counselors (Biology Classes)
Wed-Thursday- Counselors available to answer student registration questions
Friday- Students register with counselors in Library
Freshman Week- Future Soph Reg February 25-3/1
Monday- Class Visits by counselors (World Cultures Classes)
Tuesday-Thursday- Counselors available to answer student registration questions
Friday- Students register with counselors in Library
CRA Week- Future Frosh Reg March 4-8
Monday- Counselors Meet with Students
Wednesday – Incoming Frosh Tour CHS
Thursday – Parent Night 6-7 CHS Aud.
Friday- Counselor Pick up Reg forms
Parent Nights
We will be hosting a Junior Parent Night on Wednesday, February 6th at 6PM in the CHS Auditorium
We have stopped running Freshman and Sophomore parent nights due to low attendance, but feel free to make an appointment with your child’s counselor to get all your questions answered.
We will be hosting an incoming Freshman Parent Night on Thursday March 7th at 6PM in the CHS Auditorium.
Suicide Prevention at CHS
The counseling departments at both high schools have worked hard to help develop a comprehensive suicide prevention and mental health awareness program.
YAM (Youth Aware of Mental health)– Freshman year program run through the Frosh PE courses presented by outside mental health professionals. All freshman students will begin the program within their Freshman PE class on January 29th. Outside mental health professionals will be meeting with students during 5 individual class periods of Freshman PE. For more info on YAM, please contact Mrs. Meldrum or Josyln Davidson at jdavidson@helenaschools.org
QPR (Question, Persuade, Respond)- Sophomore program run through the Health classes by health teachers. The focus of this program is for students to reach out for help if they feel their friend is at risk.
SOS (Signs of Suicide)- Junior year program, presented in US History classes by counselors. Was presented in December, and the focus was to try to learn how to recognize the signs of mental health struggles in themselves or peers and to reach out for help. Students will be taught ACT (Acknowledge, Care, Tell)
Career Fair
CHS is hosting a Career Fair for the junior class on Wednesday, February 6. Prior to the event, students will get to choose two out of 22 careers that are of interest to them – from an engineer to a lineman, we will have something for everyone. During fifth period, students will attend two, 15-minute sessions with each professional they chose. The discussion will begin with a description of each person’s job, the educational path that led to that career, and end with a group discussion.
Career Cruising
The counseling department has completed career cruising lessons with the Freshman, Sophomore, and Senior classes. We will do Junior Career Cruising lessons in February, so students have the opportunity to come up with their 5 colleges to send their ACT Scores to.
The focuses at each level are
Freshman Year– Learning Styles Inventory, Career Matchmaker (looking at interests and careers that match them)
Sophomore year– Reality Check- Looking at the lifestyle students want and the salaries needed to provide that lifestyle. We then researched careers and the salaries and checked to see if they would match up with the lifestyle plan.
Junior Year– Post Secondary High School planning. We will spend the period working with them on their post high school plans.
Senior Year– We worked with them on finalizing their post high school plans, taught them how to scholarship searches.
ACT for Juniors
Once again, CHS will be facilitating the ACT test for all juniors on Tuesday, April 2nd at the Fairgrounds Exhibition Hall. You will receive several communications from CHS regarding this, but we wanted to make sure it is on your calendar.
We have several ACT Prep opportunities upcoming, you should have received a flier about this as well.
We will have an online prep option, afterschool option, as well as an intensive ACT Prep class offered by Sycamore learning. The prep class will be Monday and Tuesday January 28th and 29th. We will run 2 different evening sessions, one from 3:30-6 and the other from 6:30-9 so you can pick the time that works best for you. This is a great opportunity and the cost is $75. You should have received a letter in the mail regarding this course and you can sign up at www.prepforthefuture.com . Please feel free to contact Mr. Robinson if you have additional questions.
AP Testing
Students in AP courses will start getting information about the tests in March and signing up for the tests between 3/4 and 3/22. The cost is $94 per test and they will sign up through the book keeper.
May Test Dates
6- AP Government (AM)- @Carroll College
6- AP Environmental Science (PM) @Intermountain
7- AP Spanish (AM) @CHS
7- AP Physics- Algebra (PM) @intermountain
8- AP English Lit (AM) @intermountain
8- AP Euro History (PM) @intermountain
9- AP Chemistry (AM) @intermountain
9- AP German (PM) @CHS
10- AP US History (AM)@Carroll College
13- AP Biology (AM) @Delta (old Radisson)
14- AP Calc AB/BC (AM) @Delta
14- AP Human Geography (PM) @Delta
15- AP English Lang (AM) @Carroll College
Senior Awards Night
Monday, May 6th at 6:30 in the CHS Auditorium. This is a great event where we honor our seniors for all their hard work. Contact Anna Doran for more info at adoran@helenaschools.org
Graduation
Graduation this year will be on June 1st and this year CHS will be at 10 A.M.
Stay tuned to this webpage for updated info on graduation.
http://chs.helenaschools.org/graduation/
Scholarship Information
Remember to keep checking our scholarship page; it is updated at least weekly. There are currently over 50 scholarships listed on the page.
https://chs.helenaschools.org/about/counseling-career-center/scholarship-opportunities/
One big scholarship with an upcoming deadline is the Montana University System Honors Scholarship.
It has a March 15th deadline
Application: http://www.sfs.mus.edu
More information: http://www.mus.edu
The MUS Honor Scholarship is a 4-year renewable scholarship that waives the recipient’s tuition when used at an eligible campus. The value varies depending upon which campus the student attends
Another scholarship to highlight is the Angel Fund Scholarship, which is only for Helena Public Schools students.
Angel Fund Scholarships
Award: $1,000
http://angelfundhelena.org/scholarships
(For Helena Graduates Only)
As always, you can also follow our social media accounts for up to date information.
https://twitter.com/BruinCounseling
https://www.facebook.com/BruinCounseling/
Contact Info
If you need to contact your counselor, you can at
A-D students- Mr. Robinson jrobinson@helenaschools.org
E-K Students- Mrs. Meldrum dmeldrum@helenaschools.org
L-Ri Students- Ms. Bawden jbawden@helenaschools.org
Ro-Z Students- Mr. Ferlicka cferlicka@helenaschools.org
Career Center- Mrs. Doran adoran@helenaschools.org
Counseling Secretary- Mrs. Herndon aherndon@helenaschools.org
We hope this helps you navigate this spring and all the big things happening.
All the best, CHS Counseling Department
Senior students who have failed Semester 1 of English 4 or American Government will need to sign up for Make Up School to recoup the credits prior to graduation.
Click here to begin the Make Up School registration process.
All students taking Make-Up School must pay the full tuition if the credit is needed to graduate as stated by the School Board policy. No fees will be waived for Free/Reduced students. If students do not pay for the re-take classes, then they are not eligible to receive credit.
Learn more about the criteria by clicking HERE!.
You won’t want to miss this year’s Night To Shine: February 19th – 7:00 p.m.! Night to Shine is an annual Helena community event showcasing a wide variety of local high school talent from area schools.
This year’s audition forms can be found below, and are available at your schools Main Office.
Important Night to Shine Deadlines:
December 12, 2018 – Audition Forms Are Due
December 14, 2018 – Audition Times are Published
January 10-11, 2019 – Auditions @ Helena Middle School
January 12, 2019 – 26th Annual Night to Shine Cast Announced
February 5, 2019 – Tickets go on Sale @ Helena Civic Center
February 17-18, 2019 – Show Rehearsals @ Helena Civic Center
February 19, 2019 – 26th Annual Night to Shine Show
For further information, visit us online at www.mtdeca.com/nighttoshine.
Night to Shine is a project-based learning experience for Distributive Education Clubs of American (DECA) students from both Capital and Helena High Schools. Students work on public relations, advertising, media and stage as it relates to marketing and producing a community event. Revenue generated through ticket sales goes back to the students to help fund travel costs to compete in state and national competitions. Qualifying DECA students will travel to the National competition.
Dear Students and Parents.
Welcome (Back) to another school year at Capital High School. As we get rolling this fall, the counseling department wanted to get some important information out to all parents and students to better assist you as you go through the Fall semester.
Schedule Changes for Semester 1
8/30/18 The 1st day of the new semester- Students wanting to make schedule changes for the new semester have until 9/13/18 to get them signed off and finalized. All changes require teacher and parent signatures. Changing of instructors only is not permitted by the counseling department. In addition, going less than 6 credit bearing classes must be approved by Mr. Chancy.
Changes in our Career Center
We are welcoming 1 new addition to our counseling department this year. Mrs. Anna Doran is our new career counselor. We are excited to have her join our department and see what exciting opportunities she is able to help students connect with.
Scheduling Appointments
We have decided to make some changes for appointments in hopes to have students miss less class time and spend less time waiting to see their counselor. After the 13th (last day for schedule changes) students or parents that want to see their counselor, we ask that you make an appointment with Mrs. Crane. She will then write the student a pass to get out of class at an appropriate time. Of course, if there is a student in crisis we will adjust to help them, but for everything else we are going to try and have it be scheduled appointments.
If you want to schedule an appointment, you can call your students counselor or Mrs. Crane @ 324-2604 or email jcrane@helenaschools.org
This will be a big change and will take a little getting used to, but we hope it will allow us to not rush through our time with you and be able to provide a better service to you.
Helena College Dual Credit Time Line
Students in Dual Credit Courses (College Writing, Technical Writing, Speech, Technical Math, College Algebra, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Accounting, MS Word, MS Excel, Welding 3, Calc-Linear Algebra, Computer Science) will be getting their registration forms on Tuesday. (9/4/18)
They are due to the counseling department on this Tuesday, September 11th. The reps from Helena College will be in the counseling department from 7:30-2:30 to collect the registration papers. If they are not turned in during this window, students will have to deliver them to Helena College by 9/17. Bills will be sent out 9/18 and will be due to Helena College 10/8. Items that miss the deadlines will not be accepted.
Also, there was a big announcement by Gov. Bullock that a new partnership with the Montana University system, students will now get their 1st 2 dual credit courses (up to 6 credits) for FREE!! Any additional credits will still be at the reduced dual credit rate. Also, there will be some assistance for students on Free and Reduced Lunch to get all their credits paid for. See Mr. Robinson for more information. For more info on this new program https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/montana-high-school-students-can-take-two-college-credit-courses/article_672a937c-8578-5e1c-b0aa-c3435df3d40f.html
If your student does not have the appropriate ACT scores for the college credit portion of the dual credit course, they will need to call 447-6939 to schedule an appointment to take the Accuplacer test at Helena College. For more info, please check out http://www.helenacollege.edu/student_support_center/advising/accuplacer.aspx
Carroll College Dual Credit
We also have a partnership with Carroll College to offer dual credit courses, their information can be found here https://www.carroll.edu/public/advanced-college-experience-guide
Also this summer, Carroll announced a new program where high school students are able to classes on the Carroll Campus for free. The Early Access program is off and running and we currently have 24 CHS students in the program. For more info- https://helenair.com/news/local/new-tuition-free-program-brings-high-schoolers-to-carroll-college/article_14f18814-6ff5-59d6-8408-b86eed4e809f.html#tracking-source=home-top-story
Senior College Fair
On September 24th, the MPSEOC will be hosting a college fair at Carroll College from 1:30-3:30. Seniors will not be excused early to attend, with it being a PLC Monday, all students are out of school by 2:30. If you want your child to attend earlier, please call the attendance office to excuse them.
We will be registering students for the college fair on September 17th-19h. For more information regarding the college fair and which schools will be there, please go to http://www.montanacolleges.com/college-fairs.html
Senior Credit Checks/Senior Career Cruising
The counseling department will be meeting with all seniors 2 times at the beginning of the school year to make sure they have everything they need for graduation and to start the post-secondary planning process.
September 17th-19th in their American Government classes. We will be doing credit checks, giving them their transcript ordering information, as well as signing them up for the college fair
September 24th and 25th in their English 4 classes, we will be doing a career cruising lesson, where we will focus on narrowing down the college search as well as scholarship searches, and post-secondary planning for all paths.
Senior Parent Night
We will be hosting a Senior Parent night in the Auditorium on Thursday, September 27th from 6-7 PM. We will be presenting a lot of information about scholarships, college admissions, FAFSA. We will also be having a presentation by Marti Johnson of Reach Higher Montana about the changed FAFSA process.
If you are unable to attend the parent night, we will be posting the presentations after the fact on our website in the counseling department’s page. http://chs.helenaschools.org/about/counseling-career-center
Suicide Prevention at CHS
September 10th through the 16th is National Suicide Prevention Week and we will be having special announcements, this will all build up to the NAMI walk, Sunday September 23rd at Memorial Park. We hope to see you there.
The counseling departments at both high schools have worked hard to help develop a comprehensive suicide prevention and mental health awareness program.
YAM (Youth Aware of Mental health)– Freshman year program run through the Frosh PE courses presented by outside mental health professionals. Some completed in the fall, the rest are finishing this month. For more info on YAM, please contact Mrs. Meldrum or Josyln Davidson at jdavidson@helenaschools.org
QPR (Question, Persuade, Respond)- Sophomore program run through the Health classes by health teachers. The focus of this program is for students to reach out for help if they feel their friend is at risk.
SOS (Signs of Suicide)- Junior year program, presented in US History classes by counselors, SOS will be presented in December, and the focus was to try to learn how to recognize the signs of mental health struggles in themselves or peers and to reach out for help. Students learned ACT (Acknowledge, Care, Tell)
Career Cruising for other grades
The counseling department has completed career cruising lessons with the Freshman, Sophomore, and Senior classes.
The focuses at each level are
Freshman Year– Learning Styles Inventory, Career Matchmaker(looking at interests and careers that match them (Tentatively scheduled for November 19/20)
Sophomore year– Reality Check- Looking at the lifestyle students want and the salaries needed to provide that lifestyle. We then researched careers and the salaries and checked to see if they would match up with the lifestyle plan. (Tentatively scheduled for December 19/20)
Junior Year– Post Secondary High School planning. We will spend the period working with them on their post high school plans. (Tentatively scheduled for March 11/12)
College Application Week/FAFSA Help
We will once again be hosting College Application week at CHS. We will have dedicated application support as well as other fun activities. This year it is October 1-4th and during this time all Montana schools have either deferred or waived their application fees.
Also during this week will be offering a FAFSA workshop (10/3) at Helena High, where you can come in and get help filling out the FAFSA with experts from Helena College, Carroll College, and Reach Higher Montana. This is extremely important due to changes that went into effect last year that moves the timeline up to the fall. The FAFSA window now opens October 1st and most colleges have their priority deadlines for things like grants set at December 1st.
College Reps and College Visits
As you are starting to narrow down your college choices we have some opportunities for you to meet with reps from various colleges around the region. Keep up with our Facebook page and webpage as well as daily announcements to see when they are coming in.
Also, you can have 2 absences marked as school related if you are using those days to tour colleges. See your counselor for more information.
Career Center Evening Hours
The 1st Wednesday of every month, we keep our career center open from 5-7 to offer help on things like college applications, scholarship searches, job searches, career matching, etc.
We do that so parents can come in after work and get help with our career counselor. Also you can call and set up and appointment with Mrs Doran.
PSAT for Juniors
Capital High will be hosting the PSAT Test October 10th at the Civic Center and students will sign up through the book keeper between September 17th to October 5th. The cost should be $16. The PSAT is a practice SAT exam that also is a qualifying exam for the National Merit Scholarship Program. For more info on the PSAT please go to: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/psat-nmsqt-psat-10
ACT for Juniors
Once again, CHS will be facilitating the ACT test for all juniors on Tuesday, March 20th . You will receive several communications from CHS regarding this, but we wanted to make sure it is on your calendar.
We have several ACT Prep opportunities upcoming, you should receive an orange flier about this as well this spring.
Scholarship Information
Remember to keep checking our scholarship page; it is updated at least weekly.
https://chs.helenaschools.org/about/counseling-career-center/scholarship-opportunities/
As always, you can also follow our social media accounts for up to date information.
https://twitter.com/BruinCounseling
https://www.facebook.com/BruinCounseling/
https://www.instagram.com/bruincouseling/
Contact Info
If you need to contact your counselor, you can at
A-D students- Mr. Robinson jrobinson@helenaschools.org
E-K Students- Mrs. Meldrum dmeldrum@helenaschools.org
L-Ri Students- Ms. Bawden jbawden@helenaschools.org
Ro-Z Students- Mr. Ferlicka cferlicka@helenaschools.org
We hope this helps you navigate this fall and all the big things happening.
All the best, CHS Counseling Department
Transcript Requests: In order to send transcripts for college applications, scholarship programs, N.C.A.A. eligibility, or almost anything else you would need a transcript for, past and present students must register with Parchment to send their transcripts electronically. Transcripts include A.C.T. scores taken at Capital High School during a student’s junior year. A.C.T., retake scores are added after scores are received by A.C.T.
We have created unique registration codes for all current students, you can access the site without one, but it streamlines the process and makes it easier to get your transcript sent on time.
With this new program, you can send your official secure transcript to anywhere in the world. It will be free for as many as you need while you are still enrolled at CHS as long as you are sending it to a college or university. ( the state only supplements requests to higher ed at this point)
Parchment : Formerly called Docufide, Parchment is a secure way to send your official, high school transcript electronically. Transcripts are sent, usually within 24 hours, and are received instantly by the college. Parchment also confirms the receipt of the transcript. No more wondering if all of your materials sent through the mail have been received and processed! Transcripts are free to send to all public universities in the state of Michigan and to many other colleges throughout the country. Sending transcripts to certain colleges, scholarship programs, or specialized locations may result in a processing fee through Parchment. This is a fast, easy, and convenient way to ensure that your transcripts are received in a timely manner along with your online college applications. Once you are registered with Parchment, you can request transcripts anytime in the future, even after you graduate. Follow these simple steps to get your transcripts sent:
Register with Parchment : Every senior needs to register! Follow these Parchment Screenshots to complete your registration. If you need some assistance registering with Parchment see Mr. Robinson in the Counseling Office.
Complete College Applications : Students should have their college applications completed and submitted before requesting transcripts be sent. College applications should be completed online through the college’s website.
Request Transcripts : Login to your Parchment account and search for the colleges you would like your transcripts sent to. Select each college you want your transcripts sent to and complete your request. Follow these Parchment Transcript Request Screenshots to send your transcripts to schools. If you need some assistance requesting transcripts with Parchment see Mr. Robinson in the Counseling Office.
For information about Traffic Education, please email trafficeducation@helenaschools.org or visit the District Page by clicking here.