That's the key to making this system work. A preliminary proposal called for teachers to take on their new roles without pay, but at press time, the school board was reconsidering in the face of stiff faculty opposition. The school's current advisory is a one-semester course required for freshmen. English and humanities teacher Gay Berardi doubles as advisory coordinator. She prepares weekly plans for teachers, who receive an extensive curriculum combining videos on teenage problems with an introduction to the school, plus the academic work to fulfill the state's required course in consumer education.
Counselors drop by three times a week to meet with students individually.
In the cafeteria, freshmen from different advisory classes debate the program's merits. The video series, created for public television in the 1980s, presents teen dilemmas. Matt Lewis disagrees. We really don't do very much. All we do is watch videos.