Lake Travis High School tour (Austin, Spring: appointed, spring break, transfer)

[meredithT]

I have a little problem...maybe one of you can help. We are making our house-hunting trip to Austin next week and will be looking at the West Lake Hills and Lakeway neighborhoods. I would like to take my 16 y.o. to visit both high schools & started trying to arrange this well over a week ago. I emailed both counselors using the web sites & got an immediate nice reply from WLHS but nothing from LTHS. So I followed it up with a phone message to the LTHS counseling office secretary. Still nothing. I realize they were on spring break last week, but I called Thursday before that. I am tempted to take them off the list completely based on this poor response, BUT I am willing to give it one more try. Can anyone here put me in touch with someone at LTHS? All we want is a quick, maybe less than an hour tour and quick discussion.

TIA, Meredith

[hound 109]

Tell them your son is a NJ All State Football player.


Seriously, keep trying....who knows what the deal is on the no reply (someone sick?, extended spring break?....lazy counselor?).....but both are good schools.

[hoffdano]

I would contact the principal - Kim Brents. Send her an email or call her. Tell her (or the Admin that answers for her) that the counselors have been non-responsive. The email and phone numbers are on the website for the high school.

I know the counselors are very active right now - especially with college admittance and graduation coming. But that's no excuse.

[iceshots]

This is similar to our experience with LTHS 2 years ago. Dripping Springs HS provided a full day student escort for our daughter and she got to meet guidance councilors and teachers. When we finally got through to someone at LTHS they basically said just drop in and they should be able to find someone to walk us around the campus. No guarantee the person could answer questions about transferring, no scheduled meetings with guidance counselors.

After visiting DSHS, our daughter did not even want to drop into LTHS, she figured it would be a waste of time since she was made so welcomed at DS. We let her call the shots on which high school she wanted to attend because we knew she would have to be comfortable with it in order to succeed.

My advise is to let your 16 year old make the decision for themselves. It made our transition so much smoother, and she is doing excellent in school. She made the right choice.

[austin-steve]

I am tempted to take them off the list completely based on this poor response, BUT I am willing to give it one more try.

I would use different selection criteria than the responsiveness of counselors. Not a good indicator of what you really want to know, which is whether the education delivered is a good one. It is.

When I researched local public schools I just walked in unannounced to Westlake with my wife and was greeted nicely and assigned a student aid who toured us around the campus and answered questions. Then the counseling office answered some more questions and we were on our way. Try that and see what happens.

Steve

[meredithT]

Thanks, everyone. I think I will take your advice, Steve. It's at least worth a stop.

[hoffdano]

I would not judge LTHS based on your experience so far trying to secure a campus tour. I am disappointed they haven't been as responsive as you want. Perhaps DSHS, as a smaller school, is just doing a better job in this area.