By Cathy Chen and Brittani Wheeler
<[email protected]> and <[email protected]>

At the school board meeting on Oct. 27, students and teachers who are involved in the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program gave a presentation about how the program helps students at this school. AVID recruits middle school students who have potential but poor grades and helps them improve their grades here.

Sophomore Ross DeJohn, who has been in AVID for two years, said the program has helped him raise his lower middle school grades to A’s and B’s in high school.

AVID student and junior Taylor Porter said her organization and time management have improved and is a participant in two sports and a member of three clubs.

DeJohn and Porter are only two examples of successful AVID students. Williams and Weekes reported that over half of the AVID students have already been accepted to college. The retention rate of the program is good as well as 86 percent of the freshmen who join AVID continue in the program.

AVID students have regular class schedules, but they take AVID as an elective class and are in a special AVID SRT.

Williams said, “AVID is a family.”