VERONICA PARRA
Dear Mr. Jaurigue, Ms. Specter, Ms. Bernstein, Ms. Colgan, Ms. Wyman, Mrs. Guy, and Mr. Payne,
My name is Veronica Parra and I am a rising senior at LAHS who likes to travel and is in many advanced classes. The recent passing of NM HB130 has made me aware of the calendar changes that must occur for next year's calendar. Although changing the calendar would allow for extra breaks throughout the school year, keeping a similar calendar would maintain consistency between school years by potentially lowering school absentee rates and helping to prevent student burnout.
A rising number of students have identified school as a major cause of stress and pressure in their lives. In a recent survey done by NBC News titled Student Stress is Up and Engagement with Learning is Down, “56% of students report that their stress about school has increased.” The rising number of students that feel stressed due to school work is rising rapidly, and keeping a similar calendar that maintains an equal amount of time for summer would help to prevent student stress from school by giving students time away from school to destress for a period of time. The time to destress would benefit all students’ mental health and help prevent burnout for many students, specifically those taking multiple advanced classes and students who miss school due to competitions during a school year. Furthermore, lengthening Thanksgiving break could benefit students that travel to see relatives or go on vacation. According to an article published by AAA titled Thanksgiving Travel Ticks Up, just shy of Pre-Pandemic levels approximately 55 million Americans traveled during Thanksgiving Week. Calendar A would lengthen Thanksgiving break which would help lower rates of student absences because many students are absent during Thanksgiving week to go on vacation or to visit family. Furthermore, the lengthened break would give students more time to destress in the middle of the school year which could prevent student burnout in the fall semester.
Nevertheless, an argument can be made for Calendar’s B and C which provide more spread out breaks throughout the school year. This would allow for students to get more short breaks while still keeping their minds on school. However, the inconsistency in learning would increase stress for students, because it would constantly have them in a cycle of quickly transitioning back into school after long breaks. Additionally, the immediate shift to a drastically different calendar would be a dramatic change that students would have to adjust to in the span of less than a year, which could be difficult for many families that already have travel plans for the next school year.
Please vote for Calendar A as the 2023-2024 school calendar in order to maintain consistency with the current school calendar. Furthermore, Calendar A would help prevent student burnout and stress which could help students perform better academically. If a radically different calendar were to be implemented, students would need a longer time to adjust to the different calendar and it would cause additional stress to students.
Thank you for taking the time to consider different calendar options in adding the extra days to the school year.
Best Regards,
Veronica Parra
This email has been sent from a verified laschools.net user.