By Michael Beeli
Staff Writer
Mira Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale released a statement on the Mustang Newsletter on Oct. 21 regarding recent student suicides from eight similarly performing high schools across the country, detailing his plans to make Costa’s curriculums not easier, but less stressful.
Dale met with principals from Henry Gunn & Palo Alto, New Trier , Edina, Highland Park & Westlake, and Westside High Schools for three days to meet, share ideas and discuss challenges they all share in administration. According to Dale, the nine schools meet twice a year, and return with the hopes of improving their own schools.
“These are all high performing schools like us, and it is helpful to meet, share ideas and discuss challenges that we all share,” Dale said. “We get together twice a year, and I always return to Costa with gratitude for our great school, and inspired to do better.”
The Palo Alto and Henry Gunn high schools cumulatively had three student suicides last year, and in response, a discussion was held in order to discuss ways to reduce stress and anxiety of students. The central focus of the talks was how school could be easier on students without decreasing the intensity or academic rigor.
“One of the great things about Costa is it is hard here but we need to discuss how to reduce stress as a staff” Dale said. “There are things we can tighten up and make a little better to make school an easier process, we just haven’t talked about it before.
Palo Alto and Henry Gunn both reported that the stress of school was central causes of the suicides. The schools stated that both the learning process and the college application process were causing the students’ stress levels to rise uncontrollably. Dale mentioned that administration has taken some measures to reduce student stress, such as the implementation of office hours, but needs to effectively collaborate on additional measures.
“Office hours are a good first step to relieving stress for students but I’m curious to see what else the administration is going to do,” Junior Walker Heintz said. “Hopefully they can find a way to better organize schedules and workloads so students can work through their schedules without unnecessary stress or confusion.”
Dale said that the discussion with Palo Alto and Henry Gunn had been categorized into three areas: Homework Policies, Consistent Assessment Strategies and Deadlines and AP Access Policies. School administration is currently collaborating on further ways to supplement office hours in order to help alleviate stress for students.
“We have built a reputation on academic excellence and rigor that benefits our students
applying to college and beyond,” Dale said. “We can definitely do more to organize ourselves in an impactful way that maintains academic excellence for students but makes it easier on them.”
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