AMS Principal: 'It's Important to Make Sure None of Our Students Slip Through the Cracks'

Avon middle and high schools plan to roll out a new initiative to fulfill new state education reform legislation and ensure each child has a connection with an adult in the buildings.

"It's important to make sure none of our students slip through the cracks," Avon Middle School Principal Marco Famiglietti said after he presented the concept of bringing an advisory program to the two district schools at last week's Board of Education meeting.

The Avon Public School Advisory Program would involve periodic meetings between a staff member and 10 to 12 kids. The meetings would last about 20 to 30 minutes and be a place for the groups to discuss different topics.

At the middle school, the groups would be formed by grade and at the high school it would likely include a mix of students from different grades.

“We’re looking to assign to a teacher or a staff member a smaller group of students to help those students achieve their personal and academic goals," Famiglietti told the board.

Avon High School Assistant Principal Kathryn Lawson, Avon High School math teacher Andrew Riddle and Avon Middle School science teacher John Mason are working with him in the planning process and also spoke on the subject at the meeting.

Mason said that he's already seen a demand for something like an advisory program from the students. After a recent speaker came to the school, he gave students the opportunity to discuss what they just heard with him and their classmates. Many hands shot up and when the bell rang, no one moved to leave.

Lawson spoke to the "connectedness" the concept will help foster. She said that is particularly important when students have multiple teachers a day and that it will personalize their "educational experience."

Riddle told the board that students already naturally form connections with adults in the school and that the advisory program would build on that. Mason agreed.

“If there’s a really special connection that happens between a second-grader and an advisor, that’s not going to go away," said Mason, Avon's 2011-12 teacher of the year.