TRANSFER: Counselor is seriously missed

Save Val! Just in the last couple years, the state and city governments have made budget cuts, greatly affecting my schooling as well as my fellow peers', but it is not this that has pushed me to my breaking point.

It is the district's decision to transfer Mrs. Valenzuela to Woodland from Lake City High School. I am a sophomore at LC and have had the blessing to have spent two fantastic years with  Mrs. Valenzuela. She is the best counselor that I have ever had in my schooling years.  She supports me and pushes me to do my best in academics as well as in sports, but this is not the deciding factor.  It's the way that she connects with you. 

Val is my friend. A true and sincere friend to whom I can talk to about anything. Not only this, but she knows me, she knows my college dreams and my life plan.  But this new counselor knows nothing of the two years of information that I have shared with Val.  I don't mean to castigate our new counselor, but she knows nothing of the fantastic times that Val and I have spent together, nor of the private discussions that we have had. I largely owe the success of my high school career to her. I'm not sure what I or the rest of my class do without her. But when you consider this swap, consider my future, as well as the hundreds of other futures that you are desolating.

SAM FORTIS

Coeur d’Alene