Last year the administration tried a different advisory schedule with the freshman. The administration tried to treat their schedule more similar to the upperclassmen. This year, they readjusted. Every day, for the first twenty minutes of their lunch period, the freshmen meet with their advisory teacher. The students switch between reading to help improve reading scores, binder checks to help with organization and homework support days.

This advisory schedule is set to be this way for both semesters. Towards the end of the year, there may be a chance of freshmen having open campus. 

“This depends on the academic data, behavior data, but so far the freshmen have been doing a nice job, We do want to, towards the end of the year, possibly have an opportunity for open campus,” BHS Assistant Principal Lynette Johnson said. 

The main reason for this change was because not all of the freshmen were meeting the expectations. The administration believes that this will be a helpful change for freshmen because of how structured the schedule is. Their hope is that students will develop positive relationships with teachers in the building with the smaller advisory classes that will be around the 15 mark. 

“We have binder checks now that freshmen have binders this year. I talked to our instructional coach and he said he’d talked to four freshman advisors, and on the first binder check every single student had their binder up to date and organized,” Johnson said. “This helps with the organization.” 

Upperclassmen understand that grades matter, and that they need to do their homework. There are not as many failing grades in grades 10 through 12 as there are in freshman just because of the transition between middle school and high school. The benefit of this change is that more freshmen will end up with passing grades. This means that they will not have to worry about retaking any of their classes, and will have a better GPA. 

“Right now, we do have tutoring for kids who are not passing. It’s very important to go tutoring if you were assigned to it because it can affect test exemption. We hope that kids will go tutoring and get the help that they need so that they pass their classes,” Johnson said. 

The numbers in the lunchroom have increased this year because of the amount of freshman students at Bismarck High School. Freshman advisory is the first half of lunch because it helps separate the grades and reduce the lunch room mess that there would be if all students were there at the same time.

“I think kids can come on one day of the week and students that are failing can go in for extra help. But if you’re good you don’t have to go,” Selvig said.

Overall, the advisory changes are to help the freshman students with the transition to high school and take off some of the stress using some extra help and support. BHS teachers are working to have the expectations in place so students have the structure of knowing what is expected of them each day. 

“It may not be a break for everybody, but I think it’s a break for me,” freshman Kate Selvig said. “If you’re not stressed it feels like a nice break to just take a breath.”