Lewisville High School

Lewisville High School is the oldest of five high schools in Lewisville Independent School District. It was opened in 1897, making it the only school in the district to have celebrated its 100th year anniversary. This school year we are celebrating 127 years!

Website: https://www.lisd.net/lhs
Location: 1098 West Main Street, Lewisville, TX, USA
Phone: 469-713-5190
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lewisvillehs/
Twitter: @twitter_LewisvilleHS

Student Characteristics:

• Economically disadvantaged: 70.85%
  
• 504: 7%
• Special Education:17.71%
• At-Risk: 60.76%
• ESL: 35.94%
• GT: 9.01%
  
• Mobility Rate: 14%
• McKinney-Vento: 1%

The Lewisville High School counselors are an important part of our students' educational experience. LHS counselors are adept at counseling students' psycho-social and emotional development, as well as helping students with their academic and career goals. The LHS counselors provide a comprehensive school counseling program that relates to all the counseling domains and service delivery components that adhere to the Texas Education Code §33.006 and the Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Program. Furthermore, the counseling department is committed to continuous professional growth through district and outside professional development offerings that enhance and consistently strengthen the existing counseling program at Lewisville High School.

Lewisville High School counselors collaborate with administrators, teachers, students, parents, and stakeholders in creating a safe and engaging environment. Counselors intimately support staff as well as work with students and parents on academic planning, post-secondary readiness, and psycho-social and emotional growth. Leadership and advocacy are provided by the LHS counselors through the planning of workshops, implementation of school-wide programs, and participate as active members on campus and district level committees. Counselors work to impact school climate and safety through school wide initiatives: No Place for Hate, Red Ribbon Week, Anti-Bullying, Teen Violence, and Suicide Prevention presentations. The LHS counselors have earned the CREST award the last five years and also earned the No Place for Hate© School distinction the last four school years.

Lewisville HS has earned the distinction as a No Place for Hate© school for the last four years sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League. This program provides an organizing framework for K-12 schools committed to creating sustainable change that leads to improved school climate.

The LHS Counselors were recognized by the Texas School Counselor Association as CREST award winners for the last five years and received both the CREST Leadership distinction in 2022 and the CREST Advocacy distinction in 2023.

LHS Counselors design workshops to provide information surrounding the following topics: FAFSA, College Applications, Scholarships, College and Career Fairs. LHS counselors have had success with Saturday morning workshop offerings in order to accommodate students and their families. Below are the Saturday morning fall workshops planned for the 2024-2025 school year.

LHS counselors find ways to provide students and parents help with the college admissions, scholarship searches, financial aid application, and social/emotional issues. Our college representative lunch visits and the college/career room are available to provide the necessary assistance and information for students to explore a wide variety of post-secondary options. Below are just a few examples of events sponsored during the school year.

The Counseling Department operates in partnership with our campus administration, faculty, parents, community members, and district personnel to construct a Counseling Advisory Council (CAC). The CAC and its members focus on various aspects of prompting overall academic success, career-focused growth, and personal development. The LHS Counseling Advisory Council meets four times each school year: October, December, February, and April.

Counseling Advisory Council Members:

Jim Baker: Principal

Amber Counts, English Teacher

Dawn Chegwidden, Science Teacher

Janet England, MTSS Coordinator

Lois Hardaway, AVID Teacher

Janice Hatter, Math Teacher

Melissa Heinz, SPED Teacher
Ritchi Jatico, Science Teacher

Lauren Johnson, Special Education Department Head

Faith Jurick, Communities in Schools

Kaitlyn Juroska, Communities in Schools Site Coordinator

Bernette Lindamood, Student Leadership Teacher

Valayne May, English Teacher

Michelle Nyquist, English Teacher

Maria Ortiz, Lead Counselor

Isabel Ramirez, English Teacher

Claudia Smith, Counselor

Monica Story, Associate Principal

Arianna Villarreal, Campus Secretary

Parents/District Staff/Community

D'Ann Bey, District Representative

Jason McClain, Community Representative

Alicia Powell, Parent

Jackie Francis, Parent

Nicole Williams, Parent

Shannon Williams, Parent

Last year’s Counseling Advisory Council (CAC) was particularly interested in identifying barriers to student academic success and college, career, and military readiness. The CAC also recognizes that student social/emotional well-being and school safety are also a priority and a factor to success in school. With this in mind, the LHS counselors, with the help of student leadership, implemented activities that met the goals and initiatives of the No Place for Hate© program. By addressing pertinent social issues and justice as well as celebrating student diversity, Lewisville High School received the distinction as a No Place for Hate© school and is currently continuing the initiative this school year.

In addition, counselors identify student progress in numerous ways that include attendance, discipline, teacher input, and academic progress. Throughout the year, the CAC monitors the progress of achieving design campus goals and overall program progression, outlined in LHS’s Principal/Counselor Agreement, Campus Improvement Plan, and the Prevention and Wellness Systemic Program Plan.

Using the program implementation cycle as a guide, the CAC organizes, plans, designs, implements, and evaluates both district and campus initiatives to best suit the needs of our students and families. For example, the CAC is always looking to improve and look for new ways to address student academic success and attendance rates. By involving the committee made up of campus leadership, parents, support staff and district personnel, we are able develop and implement ideas and receive feedback from different perspectives to create a more holistic program delivery at Lewisville HS. Below is a graphic that the CAC formulated to show the barriers to student success and the skills needed for post-secondary goals.

The 2023-2024 school year focused on improving the school climate and cultivating relationships between students, staff, parents, and community supports. Lewisville High School encouraged all students and staff to participate in the BeKind initiatives and No Place for Hate Activities. Below are just some of the highlights from these programs.

Through partnerships with students, staff, and community, the LHS counselors will foster development of self-advocacy skills, personal-social-emotional wellness, and academic-career success in a compassionate and supportive environment.

Definition: The Lewisville High School counselors develop, implement and assess the school counseling program to enhance and support the emotional/social wellbeing, and academic success of all students. LHS counselors value and respond to a range of individual diversity within our population using a culturally sensitive and responsive approach.

Rationale: The primary goal of the LHS School Counseling program is to foster the development of self-advocacy skills, personal-social-emotional wellness, and academic-career success in a compassionate and supportive environment. Counselors incorporate a developmentally appropriate curriculum focused on the mindsets and behaviors all students need for postsecondary readiness and success, to close achievement and opportunity gaps, and result in improved student achievement, attendance and discipline.

Assumptions: To be an effective school counseling program at Lewisville High School, the counselors must join efforts between the parents, community stakeholders and other educators to create an environment resulting in a positive impact on student achievement. The LHS counseling program is the foundation for essential settings to ensure precise access to opportunities and rigorous curriculum for all students to participate fully in the educational process and its success depends on:

• All-inclusive needs assessments and program evaluations to be used as data for future programming decisions
• Retrieval of current student data
• Consistency with school and district policies to effectively address academic, career, and social-emotional concerns
• Close partnerships with administration, parents, and staff to address student needs
• Emerging technology and materials to support the program productivity
• Partnering with community stakeholders to advocate for student achievement and educational equity and opportunities
• Providing quality interactions with students in large group, small group, and individual activities
• Supporting staff to work collaboratively with counseling staff to complete necessary assignments
• A yearly school counseling program calendar that incorporates district and campus initiatives

The Lewisville High School counseling program uses a comprehensive and collaborative approach in developing our SMART Goals for our school. The counseling program works diligently with community resources such as college representatives, Community In Schools (CIS), local businesses, school resource officers, school leadership, social workers, residential placement facilities, and other state and government agencies. In order for our SMART goals to be effective and implemented successfully, it is important to utilize data to create the right programs, bring in the right resources, and have the needed support for our students and staff. The collection of this data is vital to support optimal student achievement and social/emotional outcomes. Therefore, Lewisville High School’s comprehensive school counseling program strives to begin and end each academic school year with the use of data collection.

Lewisville High School Counselors will conduct evaluations for the purpose of measuring the value of our program, its activities, and its delivery. These evaluations will include but not be limited to data from attendance reports, assessment of SMART goals activities through program participation, grade reports, discipline reports, student and parent office visits, and parent attendance/involvement in counselor-led events.

These reports will be used to scrutinize and analyze the impact these interventions and activities have had on our students, staff and community. These evaluations will also help counselors determine the need for any possible program changes for the following academic year.

Guidance Curriculum

Lewisville High School counselors present guidance lessons to students related to suicide prevention, alcohol and drug awareness, secondary planning and postsecondary planning. The LHS counselors will also implement lessons for the No Place for Hate Program to earn program distinction for the fifth consecutive year. These lessons will be presented throughout the academic calendar year ending May 2025.

Responsive Service

Lewisville counselors will work with individual students, teachers, parents, administration, and support staff to actively monitor students that are at-risk for academic retention or failure to complete requirements for graduation throughout the academic calendar year ending in May 2025.

Individual Planning

Lewisville High School counselors will meet with all juniors and seniors to discuss secondary and postsecondary academic and/or career paths after high school by the end of this academic calendar year, May 2025.

System Support

Lewisville counselors, in conjunction with our local universities and community partners, will provide parent workshops such as FAFSA, scholarships and financial aid, Fetanyl awareness, and college admissions for students and parents with the expectation of ten percent participation of the school population for the 2024-2025 school year.

Guidance Curriculum:

• Red Ribbon Campaign by LISD Guidance & Counseling

• Dual credit, graduation requirements and course selection

• Suicide Prevention Curriculum designed by LISD Guidance & Counseling

• Post-secondary lessons using Texas OnCourse, Everfi, college representatives, and community mentors

• Individual and group lessons to include: college admissions, SAT/ACT testing, career planning, and financial aid

• Implement approved lessons and activities for the Anti-Defamation League through the No Place for Hate© Program
  
  

Responsive Services:

• Active members on LISD Care Team
  
• Participate in truancy prevention interventions/Attendance Improvement Plan committee
• Assist in managing referrals for Angel Tree
  
• Collaborate with parents and students to provide outside resources for long-term needs: Alternative Discipline and Parent Training (ADAPT), Choosing Healthy Options in Creating Excellence and Success (CHOICES)
  
• Coordinate McKinney-Vento referrals
• Manage referrals for St. Anne's Thanksgiving baskets & LHS Angel Tree
  
• Meet with students at risk of failing courses
  
• Monitor student grades through skyward reports every 3 weeks
  
• Participate in Response to Intervention (RTI), 504, and Admission, Review and Dismissal (ARD) meetings for academic support and to provide any additional resources needed
  
• Refer students to the Student Age Parenting Program
  
• Manage students' office visits via online request or QR code
  
• Referrals to Texas Child Protective Services
  
• Support students in immediate crisis
  
• Report student threats of violence through the STRS protocols
• Referrals to Student Assistance Counselor JoAnn McRae

Individual Planning:

• Assist juniors in selecting appropriate coursework and validating senior selection card

• Counsel potential at risk/dropout students, including McKinney-Vento referrals, and applicants to the Lewisville Learning Center and Night School

• Guide students through the SAT/ACT process and interpreting scores

• Manage and guide individual student inquiries concerning all things post-secondary through the College and Career Center

• LHS Counselors meet with:

• potential dual credit students to begin spring registration process for NCTC admissions

• current dual credit students to complete upcoming semester registration

• sophomores to discuss academic selection during spring registration

• juniors to discuss and develop post secondary goals in the spring

• seniors to discuss and evaluate post secondary goals in the fall

• new enrollees to establish a high school schedule that meets graduation requirements

System Support:

• AVID Site Team

• Provide inservice district mandated update training modules for teachers and staff

• Coordinate informational parent presentations on topics pertaining to current social/emotional and academic concerns relevant to our student needs
  

• Facilitate in-person camps/workshops for parents and students to assist with the college admission process, scholarships and financial aid, and FAFSA/TAFSA applications.

• Implement Prevention And Wellness Systemic Program (PAWS) which involves collaboration with the leadership team, parents, and community members in providing LISD initiatives (BeKind), No Place for Hate Program and school safety policies for all students

• Provide a post-secondary school events such as the Community College andTechnical School Fair and College and Career Fair for students and parents to engage with college, career, and military representatives

• Work closely with the Counselor Advisory Council
• Collaborate with Communities In Schools in supporting all students
• Refer student to the NCTC TRIO Talent Search for help with college admissions and FAFSA

The Lewisville HS counselors, along with teachers and administration, actively monitored and implemented interventions in order to help struggling students in regards to academics and attendance. The LHS counselors were in constant communication with parents and students through various platforms such as in-person meetings, online Webex Meetings, emails, phone calls, website updates, and informational newsletters on a consistent basis.The goal was to provide students and families with not only academic support but also social and emotional strategies that addressed the mental health needs of students and their families.

Each counselor newsletter was sent to all students, parents, and LHS staff via email containing pertinent information regarding academic and social/emotional concerns each term. They were included under the LHS counseling website for reference, especially during holidays and summer break.

LHS counselors communicated with students and documented them through Skyward office visits, whether it was an email, phone call, or office visits. Counselors were in touch with students, especially those struggling or those who had not engaged in their classes or with social/emotional issues. In total, the LHS counselors made contacts with 7,444 seniors alone and an over 13,000 contacts, including juniors during the 2023-2024 school year.

Counselors, administration, teachers, and LHS staff spent countless hours with students and families to get them engaged and caught up in time to meet graduation requirements. With these interventions in place, senior course failures decreased dramatically throughout the course of the year. By meeting with these seniors consistently, we have seen a higher success rate of graduation and a positive change in academic culture at LHS. With these results, the LHS counselors were able to meet the SMART Responsive Services goal last year.

LHS Counselors host parent meetings in our College and Career Center or Lecture Hall that address the current needs and/or district initiatives. Presenters who are experts in their field disseminate information to parents, as well as answer questions. Topics covered include: student academic planning, college and career readiness, social/emotional issues, and current concerns students face today.

Lewisville HS is able to provide individualized help with searching for scholarships through this unique scholarship assistance program with the Scholarship Informer Gabrielle McCormick.

The LHS Counselors met individually with all juniors and seniors to discuss secondary and postsecondary academic, career, and/or military pathways. The data collection was based on individual meetings with seniors with questions and information regarding applications, transcript requests, financial aid, and career planning. Meetings were tailored to each individual student based on their chosen pathway and a student survey was conducted at the end of the meeting. The perception data below was collected and analyzed to better improve the needs of our students in their future planning. This data is a reflection of meeting the SMART goal set forth under the delivery component of individual planning. Below is an artifact of what was given to each senior student and the survey data collected.

Using the Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs as our guide, the LHS counselors created a survey to receive feedback based on individual student meetings tailored to their plans. The post-secondary content that we focused on was finalizing plans with attending colleges, universities, trade/technical schools, military enlistment, or entering the workforce. We also provided information regarding financial aid options, scholarships, transcript requests, and upcoming events/workshops for both parents and students to attend. In addition, we also included a suggested timeline and QR scan codes of pertinent senior websites, announcements, newsletters, and forms. In all, the LHS counselors wanted to provide an individualized plan for each senior that would meet the standards and competencies according to the conceptual model seen below. By addressing these competency areas, the senior surveys provided feedback and data that can be gathered for future reference and to evaluate educational trends in order to create programs and events that best serve our students and their families.

The Lewisville High School counseling team builds strong community engagement with our stakeholders. Through our joint collaboration, counselors are able to strategize, implement, maintain, and appraise our counseling program. The LHS counseling team responds to students’ immediate concerns and include counseling, consultation, and referral by utilizing local organizations including Child Protective Service, mental health services, and government assistance programs. To foster partnership involvement, the LHS counseling team communicates with parents and all stakeholders through weekly automated calls, email notifications, social media outlets, parent/staff surveys, and counselor newsletters. Using these practices will ensure that all students and parents are knowledgeable, motivated, and prepared to enter post-secondary opportunities, and that each of the delivery service components are addressed.

Ms. McRae is the Lewisville High School student assistance counselor that works closely with the LHS counselors to serve families and students to address social and emotional concerns while promoting overall wellness. She also is very aware of LHS teacher and staff needs and sends out periodic mental health check-ins for feedback and provides additional support as needed. Ms. McRae is a vital part of the LHS counseling department and plays an important role in our school community.

MIss Jurick is the Communities in Schools site coordinator at Lewisville High School. The mission of CISNT is to surround students with a community of support by preventing dropouts, and empowering students to stay in school and achieve in life. In addition, CIS works with school staff to work together to benefit at-risk students and help them succeed. CIS and the LHS counselors work collaboratively with students who would benefit from more support and/or family assistance. Miss Jurick is definitely a great resource and a crucial community partner at Lewisville High School.

Ms. Gore and Ms. Reid are the site coordinators for the NCTC TRIO Talent Search at Lewisville High School. NCTC TRIO Talent Search is a free program that seeks to identify students who are highly motivated and have the academic potential to continue their education at the college level. The program provides information and services to assist students in preparing for the college that best fits their needs and interests. The TRIO program primarily focuses on individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds and first generation college students. TRIO and the LHS counselors work together to provide individualized attention to students that are eager to enroll and complete postsecondary education.They are definitely a much needed resource to our students and families and are important community stakeholders at Lewisville High School.