as I said, the tutorial needs to be updated, but making it optional should not be implemented. look at servers without tutorials, the community is generally bad, full of stupid people who hack/exploit/break rules often. look at other servers with tutorials, the stupid people are less existant (they'll be there no matter where you go). if the tutorial is to be made optional/removed, I recommend adding more moderators to the team.
it would be cool if the tutorial was interactive, have signs like in test and a mob spawner so people can test out classes and see the fun of the server before they continue on.
Scenario:
newb is walking along, reading updated signs, gets to the part about caster. A sign for wizard is nearby, which the tutorial directs them to click it, which gives them max wizard. it then tells them to bind their skills to 3-9 items which a command block can give (this is just to test the class against weak mobs keep in mind) and they have to get past a room with mob spawners inside. once they get past it, they go through 3 more with rogue, warrior, and healer. rogue would be ninja, warrior would be berserker, and healer would be cleric. the signs would direct the newbs on how to use their class.
ninja=smoke run past, out of smoke, fade.
berserker=plow through
cleric=run through, healing everything easily.
wizard=plow through
this might make the tutorial more appealing, and make newbs more likely to read the (updated) signs. also gives them a view of how each class works, and something to look forward to in HC.
at the end of the tutorial, their class would be reset back to lostsoul.