BRANDON WEISS
Dear Mr. Jaurigue, Ms. Specter, Ms. Bernstein, Ms. Colgan, and Ms. Wyman,
My name is Brandon, and I am a student at Los Alamos High School who has often suffered from stress in my academic career. I am reaching out to you concerning the recent need to vote for one of three calendar options for the school year given House Bill 130 has passed. While a calendar similar to that of A or B may be beneficial to student parents with filled schedules, Calendar C should be used due to its ability to reduce stress within the students of LAHS.
Students in sports would be able to attend more sporting events. The NMAA has a set of specific requirements in order for students to be able to participate in athletic events. Given one of these requirements is being proficient in academics, many student athletes may not be able to make it to sporting events due to poor grades. This can lead to a buildup of stress in the students, as they may attempt to double down on “fixing” their grades to get back into sports and burn themselves out. If Calendar C is used as our new calendar, students would be given more time to work on their academics so that they may be able to participate in the sports they enjoy.
However, such a calendar could potentially create conflict for parents and their schedules. Within personal experience, vacations during breaks have slowly diminished throughout my school career. Given the price of vacation locales, alongside additional fees such as flights and hotels, many families are unable to make these trips. With this, there has often been extracurricular restraints as well, such as track and field meets or football preseason scrimmages. With this knowledge, Calendar A or B would be a better option, as a greater amount of time with less often breaks would mean both less stress for the parents of students and the students who take part in extracurricular activities. Despite this, The series of breaks consistently throughout the year, as seen in Calendar C, can prevent stress in students academically. As these breaks would be consistently interjected throughout learning periods, and given a benefit to students academic well being would directly benefit those in an athletic position, it would allow students to have necessary breaks to relax and minimize the stress that academic activities such as homework and exams could provide.
Calendar C should be the calendar that is applied to the school schedule of this year and following years, with these extra days being contributed to assisting student mental health or relieving them of the stress brought by a typical school year. If it is not, it may hinder those within an athletic position or those who struggle academically.
I thank you for your time to read this and to consider my ideas in your decisions.
Sincerely,
Brandon Weiss
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