Contact your School Counselor

As your School Counselors, we will help all students take the correct courses to graduate, find post secondary options such as college/universities, 2-year schools such as technical or community college, host parent nights, help you fill out financial aid papers and scholarships, perform grade level presentations in classroom, and do individual counseling on a range of social/emotional issues. 

Kelli Hillestad: School Counselor for Last Names beginning with L-Z
Graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies. She moved to Washington DC to do AmeriCorps NCCC and then worked for The Corporate Executive Board, a research think tank for two years. She attended the University of San Diego and earned her Masters of Arts in Counseling in 2004. She has worked as a guidance counselor in the elementary, middle and high school levels in San Diego, Arizona and Minnesota. She started working at BCHS in August of 2009 and looks forward to meeting all Centaur parents and students! 

Office hours: 7:20 a.m. – 3:05 p.m., Monday-Friday
Phone: 763-561-2120 X2156
Email: khillestad@bccs286.org 

Elizabeth Baumgartner: School Counselor for Last Names beginning with A-K
Graduated from Carleton College in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. She then went on to do a year as an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow in the Duluth Public School district in northern Minnesota before moving to Milwaukee to complete a Masters of Science degree in Educational Psychology at UW-Milwaukee. Ms. Baumgartner has held positions across educational levels and has served as a school counselor in both Milwaukee and Minneapolis. She is very excited to a part of the Brooklyn Center Community Schools and working alongside her students!

Office hours: 7:20 a.m. – 3:05 p.m., Monday-Friday
Phone: 763-561-2120 X2150
Email: ebaumgartner@bccs286.org