Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

From the Counselor's Desk

Pass or fail, most students are probably relieved that another school year has ended.

The past two months haven't been easy ones for students or teachers, but we have managed. The change of facilities and the loss of equipment in some areas have affected certain classes, but I am sure that students will not be penalized gradewise. Most teachers will give the benefit of a doubt

Final transcripts for seniors will be delayed. Everyone, including college admissions officers, will just have to be patient.

We will attempt to move all our offices back over to my old office in the high school building soon. When that is done, we can network our computers and get all of our grades and other information together for printing. I don't know when we'll have our health records and older transcripts back from the cleaning. The crew is concentrating on the building at present.

We're continuing with plans for our summer CPEP (ACT) classes. We have already begun meetings for those classes.

This week is also the deadline to register and to pay the $100 fee for the summer driver education class. I've been getting some static about the fee, so perhaps I should explain.

A big part of this fee goes toward renting a car and paying for gas and insurance. That won't be cheap! Then, there is the instructor's fee. That's me! I will not be under contract when teaching this class, and I don't intend to put in all of those hours for nothing!

Now, it's true that students can go to Hope or Delight and get it cheaper. Hope charges $80 and Delight charges $75. The difference is that Hope schools own its car and I suspect that Delight does also. Besides, the difference in what a student would have to pay in gas for commuting to those classes would probably make our class an even better deal.

There is just one item I need to add. This class cannot be given credit. The State Department of Education advises against this. If we charge, we can't give credit, and if we give credit, we can't charge. Another thing is that the number of hours a student puts in on this summer class probably will not meet state department guidelines for credit.

Yes, driver education will be given next fall during the regular school term -- for free. But the problem is in working it into the student's schedule. That's one of the reasons I decided to try to offer this class. I kept getting so many demands for it. So if we do get it going, you'll probably see us driving around town later this summer. Look out for us! I'll be the big eyed one grinding his teeth.