Extended Learning Plan

[ELIZABETH MASSA]

Dear School Board Members,

My name is Elizabeth Massa and I am a junior at Los Alamos High School. Although the calendar options presented do have their benefits, I want to propose a calendar where high school students have one extra day added to the weekend for mental health.

Often times our weekends are busy, especially for anyone involved in extracurriculars. Many of us never get a break. We often have to spend all of our weekends doing homework. Since we never get a break many of us are more likely to become burnt out and experience higher levels of depression and anxiety. As a person who suffers from these mental illnesses, I've found that the best way to elevate anxiety and depression is to just take a break. Just one day would do so much for the mental health of LAHS students.

Additionally, if we added this day many more students would be able to attend therapy appointments since many of us can not go to therapy because often the only available appointments are during school hours. When we have to miss school to go to therapy we sometimes are subjecting ourselves to increased anxiety because of the work we have to make up. 

I urge you to consider adding mental health days for high school students. Thank you for taking the time to read my email.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Massa

 This email has been sent from a verified laschools.net user.

[SAMUEL WOLFSBERG]

Dear School Board Members,

I am a Junior at Los Alamos High School. I am reaching out about the Extended Learning Plan. I do not have a preference on whether or not we implement the plan, but if we do I have some ideas for some things that I would change.

I believe that if we were to implement this plan, the highschool would be able to use this money wisely, and it would be useful to our education. While there is no written plan for the extended school days, I think we should get people to host masterclasses that would teach kids how to write a resume, job application, or other preparations for the future. As for calendars, I am against a year-round schedule, but we should add the days throughout the year, but add in the snow days. I also think that the public should be able to access more numbers such as how much of the extra money the teacher will be paid, and how much of the money will be left over for the schools to use.

Thank you. 

[DANA ROELOFS]

Dear School Board Members,

I am Dana Roelofs a Junior at LAHS and I'm emailing you concerning the plan to extend the school year. I think that the school year should only be extended if we are going to use the extra for something other than standard in class learning.

Learning is important. But there are many different ways to learn. I think that this year specifically we saw how draining standard learning can be. We should start moving beyond just sitting in class and taking notes but create a learning environment that reflects the real world. As a student I am often frustrated when I don't know the significance of my learning or understand how it helps me in the future. These 10 days are the perfect opportunity to create a learning environment that allows us to step outside the classroom and learn skills I will be using for years from now. Specifically I think that the 10 days should be used for field trips and workshops.

Field trips are amazing learning opportunities, take for example community outreach and hands on learning. Not every student learns in the same way. If we were able to go to a biology lab and examine bacteria instead of just reading about it in a textbook we would be able to reach more students by varying the way we learn. Community outreach is another amazing skill we can learn, incorporating service into our education helps build more well rounded citizens that are involved in their community. School is about learning that goes beyond a textbook, we need to start showing students this. Incorporating community service gives students an opportunity to understand the importance of compassion and not just understand the structure of bacteria. 

Workshops are also an opportunity to give students skills that they can use later in life. Having a day where we are further introduced to different scholarships opportunities, resume writing, and the college application process will help students that have parents who aren't familiar with higher education in the United States.  

I propose using calendar version 2 because the 10 days at the beginning can ease students back into the school year in a fun way getting them excited about learning without changing the school schedule dramatically. 

Thank you for your consideration,

Dana Roelofs