Change is in the air as the first quarter of the school year draws to an end. One of those changes is the popular AVID program on campus, which was forced to shut down due to lack of funding.

The main reason for this could be traced back to Gov. Jerry Brown’s new state budget that was made in late June.

This cut funding for the entire AVID program throughout California, though some schools still have it because of independent funding. AVID stands for Advanced Via Individual Determination.

It costs around $35,000 annually to run the program, which used to be funded by the state but not anymore. Principal Andre Phillips said administration is trying to straighten out the budget to see if there is any funding for the program.

But Phillips also said that this problem is also caused by the lack of documentation last year that should’ve been completed by the coordinator to have an AVID program on campus.

One example is an annual Implementation Self Study, which is considered the “baseline” for the school’s program. It wasn’t taken care of.

Another is maintaining evidence of the 11 essential components implementation.

Basically these are the general objectives of the year, which help keep the program structured and focused. It wasn’t taken care of.

“Stagg’s AVID program is doing bare minimum at best,” Phillips said. “The concerns are very serious and since running the program is very tedious, not many teachers want to advise it but Ms. Banks has come to me and said she would help.”

The change has affected students, too, especially seniors who have taken the class throughout high school.

“We’ve had to adapt to the changes quickly,” said Ana Ortiz, senior. “Now we can’t say we’ve taken AVID all four years on college applications.”

In a nutshell, the school needs three essential components to run this program: funding source, coordinator, documentation. The latter of the two aren’t the biggest problems, it’s the first. The school would have to sign up for AVID like a newcomer, and the membership fee is around $3,000. But before administration could even begin that process, they first must have a proposal for the program’s growth.

This will be decided in the future with the coordinator. When exactly is unclear.
Last week Phillips talked with Anna Lotti, who is the California Division Program Manager for AVID.

“We can get the program back,” he said. “But if we want to do it right, administration will have to regroup the entire program (for Stagg) to make sure there aren’t any mistakes.”
For the school to get the program back, it’ll need to accomplish some things.

First, it will need to pay the membership fee. Then, the school will need to pay for an AVID library and tutors. Finally, eight teachers, who are or will be advisors, will need to be sent to summer training for the program.

Administration has a lot on their hands with trying to restart AVID. The goal is to get the program running by next school year.

“Last year it took me half a year to get the school’s budget straightened out,” Phillips said. Administration will begin meeting next semester to plan how the program will run for next year. “Since we won’t have it this year, we’re hoping to send students on college field trips.”