Ep #5 - Admissions Unfiltered

Hard to believe we are already looking ahead to next school year. 

For families considering the lab schools, we have administrators from both buildings on this week's podcast to talk about the process. Andy and Ben have Andrea Markert and Dr. Carmen Bergmann to hear about the admissions processes, applications, and what our schools look for in an incoming class. 

For more information about us we also have Prospective Student Open Houses:

-  UHigh: January 28, 2026 at 6pm. Find out more at https://uhigh.illinoisstate.edu/.

-  Metcalf: Find out more at https://metcalf.illinoisstate.edu/.

Transcript

Ben Webb 0:09

Welcome to the podcast. This week we have two administrators on, one from Medcalf, one from UHI to talk about our admissions process. What are the misconceptions? What's included in the application, and why do we have a process at all for this? Stick around. My name is Ben Webb. This is Andy Govay. This is Live in Lab Schools.

Andy Goveia 0:34

Admissions. Admissions.

Ben Webb 0:37

Why do you admit?

Andy Goveia 0:38

Why do we admit? Who do you admit? What do you lie to us about with admissions? All of those questions we know you're all saying. We're gonna we're gonna cut through them today. We're gonna show you we don't lie to you. You just don't want to believe us.

Ben Webb 0:53

So what I'm hearing is there's some kind of mythology, some kind of like what it people think going to UHI or Metcalf is, and we're gonna kind of dispel the rumors.

Andy Goveia 1:02

We're gonna try to get to the truth and make sure it's clear who we are and how we do this. I love that. So, Mr. Govey, how are you this week? Uh Mr. Webb, I'm hanging in there. How are you? I'm doing good. It's been a good week. Why? What has been good this week? Well, thank you for asking, Mr. Webb. Uh I won a classroom makeover, and we're recording this two days after finding out. And so my whole room's getting redone, and it's great. Today I got to let the kids try out two different chair options, and we are very split on the chairs. It's kind of cool that you guys get to be a part of that process, or they they get to be a part of that process too. I yes, we got uh yeah, there's a one chair, it's called a ruckus chair. I'm gonna apparently I'm gonna do an ad for KI furniture here really quick. The ruckus chair is you can sit in five different ways, and half the kids have said it is not comfortable. There's another chair that we have in our teacher's lounge commons area that half the kids have said is not too it's not fun enough. So we it rocks a little. It rocks a little. So the kids that like it like the rocking, and the kids that like the ruckus chair really like how cool and different it is. So can you get some of each? That's what we're gonna explore. Can I get half and half and make everybody happy? I love that. We'll see.

Ben Webb 2:14

For the people who are just tuning in right now, there are voices that are not ours on the podcast.

Andy Goveia 2:18

So who are these people that are with us? So today, Mr. Webb, as we talk about admissions, we brought in the two people. It is their job, technically, to oversee and lead the admissions process. And it's probably the most favorite part of their jobs, clearly. Um, so we have with us today Andrea Markert, principal at UHI, Carmen Bergman, principal at Metcalf. Welcome.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Andy Goveia 2:43

We're excited to have you. Uh, we're profiling both of your admin teams in a later episode.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Who should I be worried that you're profiling me?

Andy Goveia 2:51

Your assistant principal scheduled that interview. Um, check in with her. Um could you just give us a quick 30-second-ish elevator speech about yourself, what you do here, and how you got here?

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Sure. Um, well, I've been the principal at UHI for 14 years, but I actually started as a teacher here. And then I was the dean of students at Metcalf for a couple years, came back and was the assistant principal here, and now I'm the principal here. Um, but I think the biggest thing is, well, I don't want to say the biggest thing. I'm gonna say the most fun thing that I do is going into classrooms. I enjoy going into classrooms and observing what's going on and talking with teachers about what's going on in their classrooms. Carmen?

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Uh so I've been the principal at Metcalf for three years. Uh prior to that, most of my career was in Unit 5 schools. I taught elementary school there, and I was the principal at Carlock, Glen, and then Prairie Land, and then I was the director of elementary education. And then from there, I moved to the regional office of education. Curriculum and pedagogy and professional development are my passions. And so I was able to do some work in professional development, which then led me to a consulting role for an international company for three years until uh COVID created different plans. And I had this opportunity to come to the lab schools uh for one year. It was an interim position. I was only coming for one year, but I fell in love with it and um still here. And what I do, similar to Andrea, very hard to capture, but my favorite part is when I get to be um in front of students, well, with students, seeing the learning happen.

Ben Webb 4:34

I love it. So I guess quick question on this: how many students do you have in your building?

SPEAKER_01 4:38

624 currently.

Ben Webb 4:40

How many students do you have in your building?

SPEAKER_01 4:41

About 500.

Ben Webb 4:42

Okay, and that's covering UHI and Metcalf, not HILIA. Correct.

Andy Goveia 4:48

No, that includes HILIA. Okay. Yeah. Which we have a HILIA episode coming later this season. Stay tuned for that also.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Those numbers include HILIA and pre-K, which is technically a separate program.

Ben Webb 5:00

Very good. So I guess question first to Andrea. Why is there an admissions process? Because we are allocated so many students that we can have according to school code. So what's why is there uh an admissions process for UHI?

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Well, we actually used to be allocated a thousand students for the entire for both schools. Um, but several years ago that was actually taken out of the school code. So now we could have an unlimited number of students. However, um, I don't know what year METCAF was built, but UHI was built in 1964. 1955. Okay, so yeah. So they're older buildings and we only have a certain amount of space. So for UHI, when we look at it, we think we could spit up to 630 students comfortably. Um, but anything after that, I think, would be difficult.

Ben Webb 5:47

And then would you agree, Carmen, like kind of a similar Yes, similar.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

It's it's a bit misleading because our school is quite large and our classrooms are quite large, but it comes down to the size of the classes that we're willing to put in front of our teachers.

Andy Goveia 6:02

Makes sense. So we have the we have the space limitations, but why do our lab schools even have an admissions process? Why is it not just first come, first serve, the fix first thousand people on the list get in? Why, why do we even have this process of what I think we refer to as controlled enrollment?

Ben Webb 6:18

Because some places have like a lottery system. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Well, I I I can only speak for UhI, but at UHI, um, we offer all of the extracurricular programs that our much, much larger area high schools offer. So we have to make sure that we're taking a well-rounded class of students that will bring us a lot of different things so we can continue all of the programs, whether they're IHSA programs or they're overseen by something else, or their activities or clubs. We want to be able to continue those and offer all of that to our students so that they're not missing out on anything by coming to UHI.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

And at MedCalf, it's really just more about the fact that we have a limited number of spaces and uh it would be difficult to set up a system that would be fair and equitable if it were, say, a first come, first serve situation. And so we um we do take applications and have a blind draw from that.

Andy Goveia 7:14

So, Carmen, walk us through what the Metcalf application looks for uh and how you use the information on that application with the admissions process.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Okay, so our application is is actually fairly simple, um, especially in the last year or so. We have uh pared it down and we ask information about where their homeschool is, and uh that potentially can help us to look at um creating some diversity around the community. Uh, we also ask for information about whether or not they have a sibling who attends. Uh, we do make it a priority to keep families together when we can, and um just some information about uh their previous schooling experiences. We do get information from the schools that give us specific, but only once a student has been drawn.

Andy Goveia 8:06

And then Andrea, same for you high. What are you asking for? And what do you look for with that information?

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yeah, so we have general information, um, you know, I mean, just contact information, that type of thing. Um, then we ask for transcripts. So that would be from sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. We also ask for test scores. And when we are looking at those, we're just looking to kind of get to know the student better. So for example, if a student has poor grades, you know, for a semester, but their test scores are decent, we're probably we're thinking, oh, they probably something probably happened in their life during that time, you know, that type of thing. Um, we also ask for a behavior report, but really only the administrators see the behavior report. So we're just making sure that once a student is admitted, we're able to support them behavior-wise. If we admit someone, then we look at the behavior report and we see that they might need some extra support. So we'll be able to enact those before the student even starts the school year. Um, we also ask a prompt. So they have two prompts, they get to choose one of them, and that's a way that we can kind of get to know them better so that we can understand, like, you know, where they're coming from, why they want to be at UHI, what they're hoping to gain from their high school experience. And then we do also ask them what extracurriculars they plan to participate in. And that's so once again, Lynn, like I said before, we can make this well-rounded class that wants to participate in a lot of different extracurriculars and we can continue those. Carmen.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Wait, can I just add on real quick? I I forgot to mention the test scores. We do ask for that at um at MedCalf as well. And our pre preschool and our kindergartners, we actually give them a screener. And the screener is used just to ensure that we don't have students coming in with significant needs that we can't meet. Um, we recognize that early on intervention is really important, and we don't have all of the um uh services that students might need in those early ages, including occupational therapy, um, extensive um speech therapy. Um, and so we do want to make sure that we're not setting up a student to not have an environment where they can learn.

Andy Goveia 10:19

To build on what Carmen and Andrea have both said, I don't know that we've talked about this in a previous episode, the lab schools are not eligible to receive a lot of the special education dollars many other districts are able or are legally entitled to receive. We are ineligible to receive a lot of those dollars. So when we do say we aren't unable to service students with IEPs, we legitimately do not receive the funding that other places do to support those students and those families. Um, and so that is why that is one of the pieces. Carmen, I know at Metcalf we have a pretty detailed parent questionnaire that gets filled out. Um, what does that play in the admissions process?

SPEAKER_00 10:59

We do ask the parents to share a little bit of information about their student. It it would be kind of applicable or kind of comparable, I should say, to what Andrea was talking about with the essay that just allows us to get a better picture of the student and uh uh perhaps even have some heads up on on some things that maybe we can put in place. Um, but it's it's mostly just to get to know the students.

Andy Goveia 11:23

And so Metcalf's process is very family driven because of the age of the students. Andrea, the UHI applicants, we know parents are helping, but there is a large amount of the UHI application that is contingent on the student, right? Stepping up, coming forward, and doing that. What have you noticed in applications where I think what I'm trying to kind of ask is you've seen strong applications, you've seen some really weak applications. The strongest applications, what do you see in those that make students look like, oh my gosh, they really want to be here and we want them here? What do you see in those?

SPEAKER_01 11:58

I think in the strong applications, we see students who really want to participate in things. Um, they're willing to try new things as well. We see that they have goals for themselves, even though they know that those goals may change educationally, you know, they still have some goals for themselves, or they're honest too, and they're like, you know, I really don't know what I like and what I don't like now, but I want to try all these different things. Um, I think, you know, it is funny. We can tell when parents write essay or prompts answers compared to the students. So when we see, you know, that a student has written it and it's very authentic and um, or sometimes, you know, they're humorous, or that you can tell they're really passionate about something. And I'm not even saying you have to be a good writer, it's just being yourself, you know, when the when the prompts make us laugh or cry or like just be like, oh, I really want to back up the student. That's what we, you know, are that's a good application.

Ben Webb 13:00

So the applications are received and they are sent into a committee, and that committee is going to review this. So what does it look like as um students are actually being selected for either building? What's that process?

SPEAKER_01 13:12

I can go first for you, hi. So first of all, um our committee actually doesn't see a lot of the information. So the applications come in to um, well, either online or they can bring them in and then we make them into an online, and by we I mean one person. And that one person then makes them anonymous applications in that we don't see that it's Andy Govey from this district or anything. We say it see it's number one or number two or number three or anything like that. So we only see the students' number, we don't see any identifying information, we don't know names, we don't know addresses, anything like that. We do know what um middle school they're coming from or junior high school that they're coming from. So we see that. We do see um their grades, we do see the extracurriculars they want to be involved in, and we do see the prompt answers. We don't see their gender or any identifying information at all. We do know if they're a priority student because the main office marks it that way. And for us, our priority students are students of people that work at the lab schools, or um, they are siblings of current students. And by current students, I mean they're gonna have to still have a sibling here next year. So if we have someone graduating and there's an incoming eighth grader applying, they're not a sibling, if that makes sense, even though they're technically a sibling. So that's what we see. And there are nine of us on the committee, so that we can never have a tie when we're voting on whether or not to um accept a student. So we just kind of start with our priority students first. So we go through those first, and then we um know how many spots we have left, and then we start going through all the applicants and talking about every single one based off of the information we have and where we think that they would fit into the school as we're trying to build this just well-rounded class.

Andy Goveia 15:10

Could you talk about as we move towards Metcalf, Andrea, could you talk a little bit about the Metcalf to UHI transition? And it's that's a there's a common misconception out there, for better or worse, of the Metcalf to UHI pipeline. So could you walk us through how the Metcalf students are treated in that application process?

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Yeah, so the Metcalf students are also priority students. Um, they're our third group of priority students, and all of our priority students are treated the same. We still look at the applications and determine if we think they would be a good fit or not for our school. So an example would be um, like if you're failing multiple classes at Metcalf with no good reason. So I want to be clear: some kids go through things in life and they have very good reasons for not doing well in school. But if you're failing just because um of your lack of effort or things like that, that is in your control. You might not be, well, you would not be a good candidate to come to UHI because if you're failing at Metcalf, you're probably going to be failing here as well. And you need some additional help. Um, another reason you may not get in is for some severe behavioral issues. And I'm not talking about, we don't even like think about detentions or anything like that. And even suspensions, we're not talking about um, you know, one suspension. We're talking about multiple suspensions for the same thing, and it's egregious. Um, because of course we want to keep our environment safe as well.

Andy Goveia 16:43

Right. Thank you. Now, Carmen, let's talk Metcalf. The information comes in, it gets sorted uh and gone through. Let's start with K8, and then maybe we'll get into pre-K just a little bit after. So K8, what does that process a review go?

SPEAKER_00 16:57

A couple of changes. So I'll talk through those. But um at this point, it's a good time for me to give kudos to Marissa Held, who is my bid business manager, because she does go through all of those applications. She does all of the redacting of information and uh answers all the calls that come in. And so she really does lead this progress or process in a big way. And uh we have switched to having everything online. Uh so even um, so the they're they're submitting online. Um, and uh even if somebody were to bring it in, she would scan it. And one change that we've made is that we used to get teacher recommendations prior to selection. So if a student was applying to Medcap, they would go to their schools and get teacher recommendations. We've moved that until after they've been um selected, uh, really out of respect for to all the teachers in our community because you know we sometimes get uh you know four or five hundred applications and we're only taking 20 students. So that was work that was done for a lot of teachers uh without reason. So on the day that we are selecting, Marissa has taken all of the applications, she's saved them, she creates a code based on the student's name and their birth date. And so that code is the only thing that the the team sees. And uh it used to be that we would literally do a blind draw from the papers on the table, but since we've moved to everything electronic, we now use a a number generator. And so she has put the no the um all of the applications in a spreadsheet, and so we use a number generator to select the students. Much like you high, we start with priority, and for us, same thing. Priority is uh any uh student who is a child of a lab school worker, uh any student who is a sibling, and then um actually that's it, those two things. But the siblings we do, we have tiered those as well. So if they are a repeat applicant with a sibling, um, they go in a in a different pile than someone who is a first-time applicant um with a sibling. And then we just do the random generator, pull up the redacted um application, look to see if there's anything that um seems to be a concern, and then we move to the next one. So very seldom would we ever look at the application and decide that we wouldn't move forward uh because we do have the students visit the school and then we do get those feed that feedback from the school. So um once once they get that initial admittance, we make it very clear that it is conditional.

Andy Goveia 19:34

So could you talk then just a little bit about pre-K and the pre-K admission process and then what that looks like? Um, because there's other the narrative out there about pre K to kindergarten and what that looks like. So could you walk us through that?

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Yes, complicated entanglement also. So our our preschool is separate. We are not a preschool for all, which means we're not publicly funded. And so our preschool is tuition based. Our students who are accepted. Their parents do pay tuition. We do have a tiered system of payment for students who qualify for free or reduced lunch. And uh so that is a piece of the tuition part. But um we do collect tuition and in the past it was an automatic admittance into kindergarten if you attended preschool. And that really reduced the options for us to bring in students from from the community uh whose parents either couldn't afford to do the preschool or they um couldn't afford to do a half day. Um so a couple of things we've done, we've switched to a full-day program, uh, which is much easier for families uh to get their students to. And then we also have, because of that, obviously we have a reduced number. And um so we do still there's um somewhat of a priority for for students who have been um with us in preschool, but they are put in in a pool with other students as well. And then the the highest priority go to siblings and parent or children of lab school workers. Um, but again, a piece of that is even if they're drawn, it's a conditional acceptance because we do a national screener uh just to, like I said before, make sure that the student doesn't have any severe disabilities that would require related services that we don't provide.

Andy Goveia 21:22

So you mentioned in your what you just said that there is a they come visit school. Could you talk about what that visit looks like for those students? And then Andrea will throw the same thing to you. You high as a shadow period. So could you talk about what those so for us, it's when students are accepted at Metcalf, they get to come in to verify that it's gonna work. Uh, what does that day look like? What do they do?

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Yeah. So uh once they get their conditional acceptance, we schedule a day for them to come and um observe. It's just a half day uh at Metcalf. And so they go into the classrooms. We usually try to work it so that they also go to a studio or PE and uh they're assigned to a student. And um, so that helps us to see how they function kind of in the environment and in interacting with the other students. But then we also have them do an interview with one of the administrators, and a big part of that is that we really want to get a sense for whether or not the student wants to be there, whether they feel comfortable, um, how they felt during their time there, just to kind of get a sense for um how well they would fit. Because again, early intervention is so important and we don't want young children going to an environment that's not the best for them.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Andrea, what does shadowing look like for potential UHI students? Yeah, so we have three different shadow periods. So the first period is in the fall, and that's for the Metcalf students to come over and shadow. Um, we just finished that one up this week. And then we open it again once application period begins. We have about a month-long application period. So we open that up for anyone to come in. And then the third period is after we've sent out letters, those that have been accepted that have not already shadowed, if they're trying to make a decision whether to come here, they can come shadow. So for us, um, they sign up for a specific day and they can request someone to shadow if they know a person. If not, they can tell us what they're interested in and we'll match them. Like if someone's interested in band, we'll make sure we match them with someone in band and they just follow that student for the day. They participate in classes, you know, they're just a student for the day with that person.

Andy Goveia 23:27

I've asked a lot if you got something to jump in. I've got a couple more things, but please jump in for you. I was gonna say, could you talk about both of you? And I this, I don't think this answer differs between buildings, but there are things we're not allowed to use in the application. One of the myths out there is we look at all of these very specific things about all of these students and families. And I think that misconception drives the narrative for us a lot of times that, oh, you're only looking for rich kids or these kids or the what information can we not use in this app any between either school? What are we not allowed to look at or consider for admissions?

SPEAKER_01 24:02

So we're not allowed to look at or consider any of the protected class information. So we can't consider, I'll just give a perfect example gender. You know, we can't consider, oh, we want to take, you know, this many of this gender and this many of this gender and this many of this gender. We just um don't even see that in the application at all. Um, we can't consider socioeconomic status. So that's a protected class information. Um, we can't uh um consider disabilities of any sort. So any of the protected class information we cannot consider.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Or race or ethnicity.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Yeah, race, ethnicity. I mean that's yeah, we can't consider that either.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

And it's pretty obvious when you look at the Medcap numbers at least, because our classes are only fifty or less in each uh class, that um we we now have an an entire group of about three grade levels where we are very, very, very high on the on the boys, low on the girls, which is going to impact our athletics. And um, but again, we cannot look at that information. It's just luck of the draw.

Andy Goveia 25:10

That's what definitely one of the myths we run into.

Ben Webb 25:13

Well, and you kind of reference like so there are myths. Okay. So Andrea, first to you. How much is the application fee? Zero. Okay, so yeah, well, we're not we don't have tuition in our schools minus pre-K. So, like, what are some of the myths that you come across and the phone calls you get about the application where you get to go, no, we don't have that, or that's not a thing.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

So I'd say the first one is tuition. That's our biggest one. Everyone thinks you have to pay thousands of dollars to come here. No, it's the same fee as a typical public school in our area. Um, the second one is that you high is a gifted school. We are not a gifted school. We don't want to be a gifted school. Um, we have students with a variety of abilities and strengths and weaknesses, and we enjoy that. We want that in our environment. So that's another gift. I mean, another thing that it's a student or a school for rich students. That is not the case at all. We have some students whose families are rich. We have some students who, you know, are facing homelessness. So just like a typical public school, we have every type of student here, and we do have supports for those students to be able to help support whatever those needs are. Um, I think those are the three biggest myths that we run into at UHI.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

We run into some of the similar, I don't hear as much about the the tuition, uh, but there is uh one myth that is difficult. And I I get this as uh as a parent, is that once one child gets in, the next child will get in. And that is just not always the case because sometimes it's the younger child who gets in. And as we go up in grades, the only spots that open up are when people leave, and that doesn't happen very often. So that that's one that frustrates people. They hear that they bring a child that who gets in in kindergarten and then they're very frustrated because their older child doesn't get in. Um, so that would be one myth. Um, also kind of the gifted school idea, and uh it a lot of talk about the fact that we don't service IEPs, but I I'll be really honest. We have a lot of students on 504s, and having been in the um the local public schools for most of my career, I can say that a good portion of those 504s would would qualify for an IEP in a um regular public school. The biggest handicap for us is those related services because we do have interventionists that can provide um research-based tier two and three interventions, but we don't have all the related services. So if a student has a specific learning disability and we can service it through our interventionists, we do have um in fact, we're almost at the the the number that is expected in public schools for special education um through a threat 504.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

So that's uh I also want to add one more thing that I just said I have we also have the myth that um students can be legacy students.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Andy Goveia 28:13

When did that change? Because at one point, I should say, I'm gonna preface this by saying at one point, many alumni have tried to tell me that we had legacy admissions. And it was a it was a, I think you both have said, um, priority consideration. Where was that a thing? Or what do was our applicant pool just so alumni heavy that it appeared that way?

SPEAKER_01 28:41

The only I mean, I have been on an admissions committee for 20 years now, and that has never been a thing. Now, there's a question sometimes that's on the application, like, have you had anyone graduate from here and if so, what year? But that's just a question. It's not used for admissions. We're not gonna look at two applicants and be like, oh, they had someone graduate from here, they're in. They didn't, they're not in, you know. So So in the 21st century, yes, you're saying Well, I mean, in yeah, since since 2004-ish, right?

Andy Goveia 29:16

So for most of the 21st century, yes, legacy admission, the idea that alumni get preferential consideration has not been a lab school, or I should say, at least a U-high practice. Correct. In your knowledge. Yes, correct.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

I can only speak to two years, and I I hear the same, I hear the same things, but there is a question on our application about whether or not someone in the family has graduated from the lab schools. But again, it's really more of just an information gathering piece. It has, I don't even think they see that when we pull it up on admissions day. It's really just more for us to have.

Ben Webb 29:50

One other myth I think gets brought up sometimes is so we only take so many kids from this feeder school or this feeder school, or I live 10 minutes out of Bloomington normal, so I can't go to there. Can you guys speak to that a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Yeah, I can say at Uh, we take about 67% of our kids from Unit 5, and then the rest, the other 33% come from all over. Um, you can live anywhere in the state of Illinois and come to school here. I mean, that would be hard traveling some days from, you know, Southern Illinois. But we do have kids that come, you know, from Lincoln, from Pontiac, from Peoria. So we have kids that come quite a distance from Springfield, I mean, or outside of Springfield even. Um, so as long as they, you know, if their parents work here and they bring them here and drop them off and take them after work back home, as long as they can get here each day, they can come to school here.

Ben Webb 30:42

Is there anything about IHSA with like activities? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

So at least at the high school for IHSA, if you live more than 30 miles away as the crow flies, um, according to them, um, then you will have to not participate in contests. You won't be eligible to participate in varsity contests for a year. So we do have some students that come here, they might be on teams, but they're only practicing. And then that next year they can participate fully. But they fill out IHSA paperwork and IHSA makes the determination. All of our other clubs and activities that aren't governed by IHSA, they can participate in fully.

Ben Webb 31:20

And you kind of referenced something like so if an opening makes itself known. So, like, what happens then? I applied to go to UHI, I didn't get in. Do I go on a waiting list? Do I do I just have to wait until next year? How's what's that process like? Because we don't just get applications of incoming rising uh freshmen. We also get applications from all four grade levels. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

And so I'm gonna say it's a wait pool, not a wait list. So everyone is still in the pool if they've applied, unless they tell us they no longer want to be in the pool. They're still in the pool. So if someone from, you know, unit five left, we would look into our pool for someone from unit five that kind of matched what we were bringing that person in for. Like let's just say someone played the oboe and we needed some oboe players, and that person said, no, I've ch I've chosen not to come to UHI, then we'd probably go back into our pool and look for another oboe player, if that makes sense. So we do um fill all of the spots. And so for us as a freshman class, that means 160. And then we expect some people will move away or it UHI might not be the right fit for them. And so um we will fill those spots in our sophomore junior senior level classes as well.

Andy Goveia 32:40

What is the it's not a waiting list? What does the we've done admissions, but maybe there's spots that pop up. What does that look like at Metcalf?

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Uh it would be very similar that uh we we have a pool of uh student names that we on the day that we do the application, we um we draw an additional up to 10. And we've never had to go to that many, but um, and then they just um uh again go into that pool. Now ours is a little bit more like a list. Um in the order that we pull them, we will we will go through and start calling families to see if they're interested in filling that. Um we don't have as much of a concern with the percentage that we're taking from the districts because of the fact that there's you know, in unit five there's 16 elementaries, in Bloomington there's five or six. Anywhere between four and eight um elementaries. And so um, you know, we don't really have to look at that. And um, yeah.

Andy Goveia 33:40

Yeah. Um I had a question.

Ben Webb 33:47

You always do, and then you like halfway.

Andy Goveia 33:49

I have lost it. I th I almost said six, seven. Can I add one? I was derailed by that.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Carmen, please add on whatever so one thing I do want to add on that is that is a true barrier for us that sometimes does create a certain population, and that is that we do not have transportation. So our our students do need to be uh dropped off and picked up by parents or family members. So that does eliminate some people from the possibility of coming um to Metcalf. So that's just something that we have to own. That's not a rumor. We do not have public transportation.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

And that's the same for UHI. Um, one thing students can using your their UHI ID ride the city bus for free. But some of those routes are, I mean, it might take you 45 minutes to an hour to get to school. So that is a barrier. Another barrier we have at UHI is we are not part of the national lunch program. So while we provide food for our students for lunch, we don't provide the ISU selling lunch. I mean, ISU comes into our school, sells lunch. We don't provide that one as it is very expensive. So that is another barrier for our school.

Ben Webb 35:01

You remembered what you were going to talk about.

Andy Goveia 35:02

It was going to be barriers. It was a barriers question. What barriers do we have? Um, transportation, you high lunch access. And I think to be transparent also, um, our lack of ability to provide more specialized special education services. We we can meet, I think Carmen, you said this really beautifully, we can meet a number of student needs because we have a phenomenal group of people that work here that are able to go above and beyond for kids. But if we don't have the specialized ability to help, we are doing a disservice to families if we try to teach their kid in a way that's just not going to work for their specific needs. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's true. Really important for people to keep in mind before they were to apply. So if you're listening to this episode and you're going, that helps, we would invite you, stay tuned at the end of the episode. We'll put a tag on that walks you through when our open houses are. Um, but could we just ask you both here before we get to our closing questions? When can we expect to see applications come out? Um when is generically, when are we going to see those? And when do applications generically close? And like I said, we'll put a tag on with specifics, but when can we look for that window to open? When does it close? And about when do we expect decisions then to go out?

SPEAKER_01 36:16

So January 28th of 2026 is when the application will open. That's also UHI's Perspective Student Open House. So please come. Um and then we usually close it sometime in the end of February. I don't have the exact date yet. We haven't really discussed that yet. But it's some, it's usually at least open for four weeks, four and a half weeks, something like that. And then um admissions decisions usually go out around April 15th or on April 15th, it's always been, but that doesn't mean it can't change.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

So very similar timeline to Metcalf, but we don't have our prospective open house on the day that the applications come out. We do it more in mid-February-ish. And uh the applications close at the end of February, early March. And uh we we do start with our conditional acceptances, uh, acceptances? Um the uh towards the end of March, early April, um, with the hope to have all of our final by April 15th.

Andy Goveia 37:16

Like I said, stay tuned after the tag and we'll get all those full dates. Well, this episode is being released around admission season, so you'll hear the full details again after the tag. Uh, that's your first time on the pod.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

Yeah.

Andy Goveia 37:28

And so your first time on the pod, we do the fast five. Five quick questions for you. Okay. Ready? They're lighthearted, okay, they're fun, okay. Nothing that will get you in the newspaper or on TV. Oh, well, maybe, who knows? Uh, we'll go around, just we'll go back and forth. Whoever wants to go first, who would you say is the person that most led you into education?

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Oh my gosh. So I would say Mr. Cooper. He was my um anatomy teacher in high school. And so but I've had some really great teachers over the years, but I really didn't want to be a teacher because my grandma was a teacher and my mom was a teacher. Didn't want to not want to follow the stereotype, but I came back around to it. So they won. Carmen?

SPEAKER_00 38:13

I don't know that I can mention somebody specifically because um I went to Oakdale and had an amazing experience there. So it was really that that team and that staff that that led me into um education. I knew when I was eight.

Andy Goveia 38:27

What is your go-to caffeine to get through the school day?

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Unsweet, nice tea. From McDonald's still? Well no, now it's 201. So no, now I just get I just make it or get it like in a gallon.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Generally coffee for me. So if anybody's looking to order really anything that has coffee, and if it's before 11 a.m., um, at least three shots of espresso is good. Um I was I was drinking Celsius for a while, but then I was told that wasn't healthy. And so I'm but three shots of espresso is yeah, well, I apparently maybe more healthy. Okay.

Andy Goveia 39:06

A lot of people told her Celsius was not working. Um what was your favorite subject when you were a student?

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Oh, science. Math. Love math.

Andy Goveia 39:16

This is a multi-layered question. Okay. One of the three. What are you reading, watching, or listening to right now?

SPEAKER_01 39:23

Oh my gosh. Um, so I am watching Pull Dark because I'm really into these different series about England. And I I don't know why, I just am. Um and but I do, I probably listen to I Audible books every single day. I'm listening to an Audible book in the morning and at night before I go to bed. And so I rotate. I mean, just book after book after book.

SPEAKER_00 39:50

I'm reading Let Them and I'm watching Yellowstone because I've heard that the character development is really good and I love that in a show.

Andy Goveia 39:59

Finally. What is your favorite thing about being a part of the lab schools?

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Oh, so I love working in an environment where everyone cares so much about students, cares so much about learning, and is willing to put themselves out there and try new things and do new things. Like it's an exciting place to be. You have all the aspects. You have the adults that you get to work with, you have the students that you get to work with that are teenagers, which is my favorite age. Um, and it's just an exciting place to be every day. And you never know what's gonna happen each day.

SPEAKER_00 40:37

Uh my answer is gonna be pretty similar, but I'm gonna narrow it down to just the people in in general. I've never um felt as connected to a staff as I have been here at Metcalf. Um, but we also have parents who would literally do anything for the school at any time. And then our students are just the most amazing kids all the time. Um, so definitely the people. But uh what really drew me here was the option to try new things. Um I get discouraged in public education at times, how hard it is to move the dial. And so I wanted to be in a place where I felt like we can move the dial.

Ben Webb 41:14

I love the hopeful ending.

Andy Goveia 41:16

That's really positive. So, again, if you've listened today, you heard from Andrea Markert, principal at university high school, Carmen Bergman, principal at Thomas Metcalf Laboratory School, about our hopefully now demiffed admissions process. All right.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Thank you for the invite. Yeah, thank you both for being here. This was great.

Andy Goveia 41:36

Uh this has been Live in the Lab Schools. Live in the Lab Schools is a production of the ISU Laboratory Schools recorded on the campus of Illinois State University. Connect with us on Facebook or Instagram at Live in the Lab Schools. We'll see you next time.