On May 23, several AHS faculty members and students met to discuss Advisory and scheduling for next year. Planning went well, to say the least. The entire calendar for the school year was filled in, with each assembly and event tentatively placed. The main topic, however, was what would become of the Advisory curriculum.

Each week there will be four Advisory days, as there were this year. The difference will be what is accomplished on each of these days. Monday will be the “meat and potatoes” Advisory, in the words of AHS art teacher Mark Schoenleber; Mondays will be reserved for surveys, counseling with upperclassmen etc. Tuesday and Wednesday will be back to back Taking Care of Business days, or TBC time. Thursday will be set aside for assemblies and guest speakers. If there is no Monday in the week, one of the TCB days will be removed and used as an Advisory day.  Otherwise, not much will be different next year. AHS’ schedule will continue to allow for ten-minute passing periods and classes will be 85 minutes long.

There have been complaints from both students and teachers about the nature of Advisory, feeling that it is not productive enough to justify removing 40 minutes of valuable time from the school day four days out of the week.  The truth is, the creation of Advisory was a an attempt by the administrators of AHS to give the students a chance to plan their futures both in high school and afterward. It is also an opportunity for AHS staff to get to know the individual students in their Advisories better and build bonds to last throughout the high school experience. Although not all of the hopes for Advisory were fulfilled this year, remember that it is a new program with several years left in its functioning in which to improve it and better the experience it provides for Ashland High School students.