When it comes to tutoring sessions, availability matters a lot, and students who could only attend in the morning have lost that opportunity.

As of February 27, due to certain guidelines and student attendance, ELOP (Expanded Learning Opportunities Program) has shut down morning tutoring sessions. Tutoring after school is still being offered.

Morning tutoring was a way for students who get to school early to finish their work and get additional learning opportunities, but because the program has been cancelled, many students can’t get the help they need anymore. 

On February 23, teachers Sandra Ozornio-Caballero and Liliana Magaña who used to do morning tutoring wrote emails criticizing the program, stating they don’t feel comfortable continuing the program until there are more clear guidelines and “expectations and logistics are better defined.”

Sandra Ozornio-Caballero explains what difficulties got in the way of morning tutoring.

“Because the morning sessions run differently since we have to be here an hour earlier to start tutoring at 7:15, if students don’t show up by a certain time, teachers have to sign out and go that hour without pay, It’s a huge inconvenience because as teachers, we’re already on campus so we can’t go home and come back before the beginning of the school day,” said Ozornio Caballero.

Just a day later on February 24, AP Emmanuel Calderon called a meeting regarding the ELOP program in the library to “provide clarity and ensure full transparency.” Only days after this meeting was the program cancelled for the morning.

Marilyn Martin who is with the ELOP program explains why morning tutoring has been cancelled. “Morning tutoring as of now has been cancelled due to a lack of student attendance and having more teachers that can’t continue with the program,” said Martin.

Ozornio-Caballero said that student attendance rate in morning tutoring has significantly dropped this semester compared to last semester which was making it harder to keep up with the guidelines and tutor.

“The very low attendance is definitely making it difficult and once we had those guidelines clarified, it made it very difficult to even do tutoring at all because we don’t have the required number of students attending,” said Ozornio-Caballero.

Junior Leslie Valdez said the morning tutoring cancellation has impacted her as she cannot make it to after school tutoring and can no longer receive additional help for her classes. 

“I personally can’t attend after school tutoring because my mom does work after school so I’m only really able to go in the mornings… Sometimes I just need additional help in these classes and it’s not as accessible to me anymore,” said Valdez.

Junior Josue Padilla said that he mainly attended morning tutoring towards the end of a semester when finals come up but now has to adjust to this new change in the program as he is used to receiving extracurricular help in the morning. 

“Normally I go to the morning tutoring but normally that’s towards the end of the semester or towards finals,” said Padilla. “I’m used to going to tutoring and receiving that help in the morning so I think it’ll be a bit of an adjustment.”