Spring Mills senior urges Berkeley County Schools to add college‑readiness course and expanded aid guidance

Whitney Heller, a senior at Spring Mills High School, used the citizen‑comment portion of the Berkeley County Board of Education meeting to urge the district to strengthen college application and financial‑aid guidance.

"I'm a senior at Spring Mills High School, and I'm here to advocate for an effort of stronger and more accessible college application and financial aid guidance in high schools," Heller said, calling her proposal "beyond graduation" and urging the district to provide increased informational meetings, shared resources and a long‑term goal of a semester‑long college‑readiness course for juniors and seniors.

Heller told trustees that counselors are diligent but overextended and that individualized help has become harder to access as enrollment has grown. She said she and peers have struggled to schedule meetings, receive timely responses, and obtain detailed feedback on applications and essays; she reported collecting about 100 student votes at Spring Mills in support of the idea.

The testimony was delivered during Citizens’ Forum; the transcript does not record a formal district response to Heller’s request during the meeting, but board members acknowledged the issue and thanked her for speaking.

Provenance: Whitney Heller’s comments appear in the citizen comment section (SEG 199–257).