“Kids in general should be allowed to leave advisory because if you have something to do, you can’t leave class. And advisory is a good time to do that.”
SKHS senior Alexis Howland does not believe in the new guideline given to teachers, which states that students are not allowed to leave advisory for anything other than the bathroom.
Many say this new guideline has caused problems for students, as advisory may be the time to visit guidance or other important things.
Liz Spink, another SKHS senior, also believes students should be allowed to leave advisory.
“You should be allowed to leave advisory to go to Guidance and other areas,” said Spink.
Even some teachers agree with the students.
“I think that its [advisory leaving] ridiculous because quite often, it’s the only free time students have,” said Ms. Bjorness-Sodhi, whose daughter is a senior at the school. “And if you need to get paperwork in the library, get signatures, or do colleges work, they can’t.”
Many days of the week , however, the guidance office remains open after school for students to meet with counselors and take care of such tasks.
The department head of guidance, Ms. Majeika, says that advisory is more of a time to create a personal connection between the student and the advisory teacher.
“One of the tenets of the Rhode Island Department of Education is that they didn’t tell you to do it one way, they gave you some ideas, but the emphasis was on the fact that someone besides the school counselor would be in the building, available for that student to connect to,” said Majeika.
Majeika also states that SKHS decided to use the homeroom model, so that students would ideally have the same advisor for four years.
Librarian Ms. Lavin, for most part, agrees with Majeika.
Lavin says, “I believe it’s a good policy in general, but exceptions should be
Lavin says, “I believe it’s a good policy in general, but exceptions should be allowed in case of emergency.”
Majeika also stated that she currently participates in an Advisory Steering Committee. The committee is formed in part by Mrs. Majeika, Mr. McCarthy, Mrs. Klenk, and Ms. Fagan.
Formed when Advisory began (around five to six years ago, according to Mrs. Majeika), the committee determines what goes on in Advisory.
“Another use for Advisory is as a vehicle for Guidance and other areas of the school to get important things out to students such as report cards or transcripts,” Majeika said.
“Your advisor has access to your grades, can talk to you about your grades, can talk to you about your schedule, and when it [Advisory] started. We actually developed a notebook of ideas of activities that were grade specific,” said Mrs. Majeika.
According to Ms. Lavin, the advisory policy is good because, for example, “Guidance stays open until at least 3:00 p.m.”
According to multiple guidance counselors, not many students take advantage of the fact that guidance usually stays open until 3:00 p.m., and even until 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays.
Also, Lavin says, “If teachers are involved with a number of students, and more students come in to do work, the original students are marginalized.”
Majeika understands the need for the other things students must do, but she emphasizes the personal connection.
“In order for advisory period to accomplish what it needed to do, students needed to be in their advisory period, not wandering the hall, not doing errands in the hall,” said Majeika.
When asked specifically about coming down to Guidance, Ms. Majeika says that advisory is a time for students to establish the personal connection, not to get important things done.
While Mrs. Majeika says she “appreciates” the idea of people having only Advisory to see a counselor, she focuses more on the “personal connection” idea of Advisory.
The idea of a “personal connection” does not go over well with Bjorness-Sodhi and Howland, however, Bjorness-Sodhi said, “Let me ask you this: As a senior, don’t you think that there’s more to be done than establishing a connection? I think that if you’ve been with an advisory teacher for four years, there have been countless opportunities to establish a connection.”
“Kids in general should be able to leave because if you have something to do, you can’t leave class,” Howland said, “and advisory is a good time to do that.”