THE RETURN OF STUDENT SUPPORT

After a year-long hiatus, monthly student support Wednesdays have returned as a resource for students.

Student support is usually the first Wednesday of each month from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm. But with crunch time towards the end of the semester, two shorter additional student support days were added in December, on the 10th and 17th from 1:30 pm to 2:00 pm. 

Principal Thomas Daniel explained that he wanted to give students the opportunity to get support from teachers and work on assignments and projects before winter break so students will be able to “relax over break and enjoy the holidays.”

Student support days are listed in the Community Newsletter that is sent via email on Fridays. Mr. Daniel plans on adding a slide for student support days on the televisions around the school, such as in the commons and cafeteria, to remind students of the days it is held. He also mentioned including student support days on announcements to “make sure that information is out there” and known to students.

The first Wednesday after students return from winter break, January 7, student support will be offered. It will be a great opportunity for students to use to ensure they are in good standing in their classes before the semester ends on January 14.

Teacher Feedback

Teri Schultejans is a math teacher at Clear Creek Amana High School and she encourages all of her students to use student support. Every month she writes on her whiteboard the next date for student support and reminds students of the great opportunity to catch up on school work and ask for help. 

She said she usually has between five and fifteen students show up and loves to see them make good use of the time and ask questions. Schultejans believes “we need it more often” and that student support “should be at least twice a month or every other week”. 

As a physical education and health teacher, Cam Stockman doesn’t get very many students during student support but still agrees that it is very “valuable” and “beneficial”. He would like to see more students “take advantage of it” and believes that one way to get more students to use the resource would be to promote it more. Stockman proposed the idea of a calendar with the dates planned out in advance on a semester basis that could be available for students to see. He believes that if more students heard about it more often, they’d be more likely to attend.  

Art teacher Jill Lauer teaches Glassworks and Ceramics. In her opinion, student support is often enough and “not enough students take advantage of it” anyway. Lauer does acknowledge that not many students “need it” and/or “can’t attend” because of a lack of transportation or other reasons. She also mentioned that the extra two weeks in the first semester this year has “helped a lot” with the pacing of her art classes and gives students extra time, which means “less students are rushing to finish projects” at the end of the semester. So, not as many art students need the extra work time for projects and therefore may not attend student support.

Student Feedback

In a survey about the return of student support, 37 students from across all four grade levels gave responses. It is important to note that student support is available this 2025-2026 school year and was the year of 2023-2024 but not last year during the 2024-2025 school year. Current seniors had student support offered their freshman and sophomore years and experienced its absence during junior year. Current juniors had student support during freshman year but not their sophomore year. Meanwhile, the current freshmen and sophomores this year have student support available to them for the first time which may have influenced their responses to the survey. 

MATH TEACHER TERI SCHULTEJANS HELPING JUNIOR THEA NELSON DURING STUDENT SUPPORT; PHOTO BY KAILEE CARVER

Overall, surveyed students reported that they use student support to get help for assignments, ask teachers questions, make up tests, work on projects, and as a good environment for studying. 56% of respondents stated that they do not think student support is often enough. When asked if they would attend if student support was twice a month, 81% of students responded with either yes or maybe. Yet, only 51% of students said they have attended at least one student support session this year. Even fewer students, 30%, indicated attending two or more sessions.

This conflicting data shows that while students like the opportunity of student support, they tend to not attend in large numbers.

According to the Teacher Attendance Document, the average number of attendees across the first six student support sessions held during the first semester is 46. With the least attended student support having 17 students attend and the most having 61. For reference, there are 837 total students at CCAHS.

According to the Teachers’ D/F list, there are 604 Ds and Fs across all classes that freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors are enrolled in, as of December 15. This does not include Kirkwood classes. It’s important to note that of these 604 Ds and Fs, that is not 604 individual students. Some students may have multiple Ds or Fs in their classes. Nevertheless, with the amount of Ds and Fs, there should be more students using available resources to improve their grades.

It is also important to consider that student support Wednesdays may not be as equally accessible to each individual student due to a variety of reasons. Some students may lack the transportation needed to attend. Fortunately, there is an activity bus at 3:30 pm. Student support usually ends at 2:30 pm so students relying on the activity bus for transportation would not be able to leave student support as soon as it ends. Instead they would have to wait an hour after it ends to ride the activity bus home.

Other students may need to care for younger siblings after school. Many students have part time jobs and go to work immediately after school. It’s possible that some would rather go to work and earn some money than be at school longer working on assignments. Also, sometimes it can be difficult to get a day off. It’s also possible that some students may be unaware of when student support is.

Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution because there will always be some students that something doesn’t work for. Fortunately, there are several times for students to get extra support from their teachers. Aside from student support, students can use before school, after school, and advisory. All that can be done is for multiple opportunities to be offered to students and make sure they are informed of them. 

One senior, choosing to remain anonymous, reported that last year during the absence of student support they felt, “A little anxious because [they] didn’t have time to work on stuff with teachers that [they] needed to get done.” 

This year they have been able to attend a few student support sessions and feel more at ease with less stress.

Another anonymous senior felt relieved when student support returned this year because students have more opportunities to get the help they need from teachers. Last year when student support was gone they thought, “Students missed out on a lot of potential one on one time with teachers.” 

While Rose Piehl, a junior, does not attend student support, she did feel upset last year for her peers who lost that as a resource. She felt its return this year was very necessary and a great “tool for students who need to see teachers more than advisory allows.” 

Ella Stineman, a senior, felt “really happy” when student support made its comeback this year. She feels that “it truly helps”, especially in classes where projects are not able to be worked on outside of school. For example, art classes like Glassworks and Ceramics. Students do not have access to glass, breaker pliers, clay, glaze, kilns, and other necessary equipment to complete their projects at home so student support Wednesdays provides an opportunity to have more time to finish art projects. Stineman is thankful for the much needed resource.