By Valeria Araujo – News Editor

Jonathan Law has introduced an Academic Support Center for all students this year.

The Support Center, a district initiative, will aim to help high school students in English/social studies or math/science. Students can drop in during their study hall or whenever they have free time during the school day.

“If a student is in an honors class, an AP class, or even a Level 2 class and want to get something proofread or need some help in geometry they can go in and get a little extra help,” principal Mr. Thompson said.

At Law, the Support Center is staffed every period by English teachers Ms. Hanson and Mrs. Goldbeck and math teachers Mr. Frank and Mr. Ruzbarsky.

Two types of students can use the Support Center: drop-in students that come in during a free period, and long-term students who are recommended by their teachers

“We try to get (the topic) across in many different ways so (students) completely understand the topic before they leave,” Ruzbarsky said.

Classroom teachers can recommend students to the Support Center and then give the Support Center teachers the topics they want the student to work on. After finishing the tutoring sessions, students will have an exit exam, and the result of that exam will determine if they can place out of the Support Center.

“The Support Center is really helpful,” Junior Zachary Bender said. “I can come in for multiple different things and get help for all of them.”

Skill building is one of the main focuses of the Support Center.

“If any kid is missing a skill, or if they’re out sick from school and there was something they missed that day that they really needed, we’re here to help them,” Goldbeck said.

The Support Center has already been proven to be very popular with students.

“What we are noticing – and we are excited about – is that it’s not just about going there for a marking period, or a month a lot of people are just dropping,” Thompson said.

One advantage of the Support Center is that students can get personal, one-on-one support from a content area teacher.

“As a teacher you have thirty kids to worry about but you just getting the general curriculum across,” Ruzbarsky said. “In Support Center, you work on individual topics and ideas with the students. It’s a catch twenty-two, I call it; basically it’s just as intensive here as it is in the classroom and we’re more focused on narrowing down skills here and narrowing down topics instead of getting the general idea across.”

Teachers in the Support Center said that they have benefited from the new program professionally as well.

“The ability to work with Mr. Frank, Mr. Ruzbarsky, and Ms. Hanson on a regular basis makes my teaching that much stronger,” Goldbeck said.

The Support Center teachers also get to interact with different students than they would in their regular classrooms.

“In the past few years I’ve taught the same classes year to year so I see a certain pocket full of students but there are still a lot of students that I’ve never met,” Frank said.  “I’ve already bumped into 50, 60 kids that I would have never met otherwise.”