On Sept. 20^th, there will be a new advisory period on Wednesdays. Recently, Texas has implemented an HB 4545 legislation that now requires students to endure 30 hours of tutoring based on STAAR, EOC, and BOY tests. The criteria is as follows: any 9^th grader who did not attempt an 8^th grade STAAR test and did not perform satisfactory on beginning of the year exam, a 9^th grader who failed an 8^th grade STAAR test, any high school student who failed a high school EOC prior to the test date, any student whose initial EOC test was spring 2021 and chose not to take it or failed, and any student who did not attend any scheduled STAAR, EOC, and BOY exam. Mr. Escareno has elaborated on the exact relevance of the new advisory period.

“Students that did not meet with success in the STAAR exams or in our case, the EOC’s that everybody has to take in order to graduate calls for an ‘accelerated instruction’ to close these gaps in the tested areas. As an example, incoming 9^th graders, if they didn’t pass the STAAR in eighth grade, they would have to take 30 hours of ‘accelerated instruction, per failed area,” Escareno said.

For students who have passed their exams, they will be reviewing mental health videos and responding to surveys. The advisory periods will be 40 minutes long and some of this time can be beneficial to students, especially seniors. Escareno is currently working on a schedule to help students be proactive during the period.

“I wanted to create, during the advisory, time for things that would benefit students, say for like, seniors. Maybe filling out your FAFSA application, looking at college applications, maybe we could prepare students that want to go into the military,” Escareno said.

And if you are worried this may disrupt homecoming activities, the new advisory period will not cause a conflict in scheduling. Since the period will be once a week on Wednesday’s it will not conflict with anyone’s schedules.

“I don’t think it will be a problem. The advisory is only for the 40 minutes on Wednesday. That’s it. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” Escareno said.

Don’t forget, all students will be starting the new advisory period. On A-days you will be attending your assigned room after 3^rd period and on B-days you will attend your assigned room after 7^th period. Advisory classrooms will be posted today.