I got in touch with my son’s guidance counselor a few weeks before senior year to make sure he understood the process, the time frame, how many schools S was applying to and to basically make him part of our team. S had the transcript request forms filled out before school started (our school still does all requests on paper) so that the guidance counselor could get those out before he was hit with the onslaught of requests from everyone else. S also had a few schools which required a guidance counselor recommendation so we made sure the counselor knew to be prepared.
The other thing we worked with him ahead of time on was attendance because we knew S would quickly hit the limit of excused absences. The guidance counselor was then able to be proactive with the other administrators to get approval for all the time off S needed for both auditions and accepted student visits.
I don’t know how it is at other schools but at our school, our counselors are stretched way too thin with more work than is reasonable. I really tried to be communicative and proactive both to be respectful of the counselor’s time and other job responsibilities so he knew dates/deadlines/requirements and could handle them as he was able to find time and also to make sure that it was the one part of the application process we didn’t have to stress over too much. During the school year, S was the one who communicated with him as needed.