Losing the IHS AVID Program

AVID, or Advancement via Individual Determination, is a program that helps students prepare for college by teaching them organizational and academic skills. This year, when the first budget did not pass due to concerns about tax increases, all levels of Ithaca’s AVID program were cut. AVID was a valuable resource, especially for underprivileged students who may not otherwise have had easy access to the information that AVID offers. The loss of the program is unfortunate for many students and highlights the greater lack of funding for elective courses in a difficult budget year.
 AVID provides tools and structure for students to succeed in high school and navigate advanced classes. Freya Dolch ’25 called the program “the best thing [she] could have done to help [herself] coming out of COVID.” Typically, tutors would come in on Tuesdays and Thursdays to help with homework, giving students access to one-on-one learning for free. With these tutors and the AVID coordinator, students could go over challenging problems, review larger concepts, or correct and edit their work.
 Additionally, the AVID program taught students organizational skills to manage the workload in their classes. Students learned new study and note-taking methods and had the chance to discover what works best for them. They organized these notes in the infamous 4-inch AVID binder, which is required in the early stages of the program.
 According to Dolch, “a huge part of tenth grade AVID is the Early College Awareness program,” which helps students begin to navigate the college admissions process. AVID students learn about colleges and the application process by making infographics about different schools and going on field trips to nearby universities. Some students in AVID are the first to attend college in their families, so the Early College Awareness program helps level the playing field by giving all students a chance to familiarize themselves with higher education. Students have an opportunity to tour colleges, with program day trips to Le Moyne, Syracuse, and SUNY Cortland. Last year, the AVID juniors took a trip to Boston to tour out-of-state options. Of the experience, Dolch said that “the college trips solidified my likes and dislikes about schools and made the process so much easier.” With programs like AVID, college applications become much more approachable for all students.
 AVID was a safe space for students that allowed them to succeed in their classes and beyond. However, the rejection of the first school budget proposal means this opportunity no longer exists for students. It is unclear whether the program might come back in future years.