AUDREY SEE
Good afternoon School Board President Mr. Antonio Jaurigue, School Board Vice President Ms. Ellen Specter, School Board Secretary Ms. Christine Bernstein, School Board Member Ms. Melanie Colgan, School Board Member Ms. Sondra Wyman, Superintendent Ms. Jennifer Guy, and Assistant Superintendent Mr. James Payne.
My name is Audrey, and I am a junior at Los Alamos High School. I am a cross country and track and field athlete, an AP student, I work full-time over the summer, and I participate in Model UN after school while pursuing my passion for art when I have free time. While more time in school extending a week into the summer as seen in calendars B and C may offer extra support to struggling students, calendar A is the best choice for athletes and working students because it ends the school year earlier than calendars B and C and includes a longer summer break.
By ending the year a week earlier than the other two calendars, calendar A includes the most opportunity for working over the summer. Though I work hard in school, my family simply does not have the funds to fully pay for my college education, and students like me need as many hours as we can get while working over the summer. Calendar A best supports students who work by providing them with the longest possible summers, giving them the best opportunity to earn money. I recognise that our community is wealthy—11.7 percent of Los Alamos households are high upper class— and some parents may argue that many Los Alamos families do have the funds to pay for their childrens’ college. However, the remaining 89.3 percent of households may not be able to pay for college education, and students like myself need to work hard over the summer to ensure our futures are secure. By shrinking the summer, we risk losing funds we partially rely on to pursue higher education. In addition, not all students who work do it because they are heavily strapped for cash. Parents like Lynn Ovaska, who teaches at the high school, encourage their children to work over the summer in order to gain life skills as well as funds for college. Shorter summers mean less time for working students to have opportunities to earn money and gain life skills.
Calendar A also includes a 1-week spring break, rather than a 2-week spring break, better supporting sports teams that have difficulty practicing during breaks. On the days we do hold practice, not all students are able to show up without the assistance of transportation provided by the school, or their parents have planned vacations that keep them from coming to practice. Doubling the spring break will cost these students valuable time. Furthermore, this time is even more important in the spring, as the spring is the primary competition season for sports like track and field. By putting us back in school after one week, teams are guaranteed to have most or all of their members back at practice. I realize that extending spring break may help stressed and overwhelmed students relieve some stress. However, as a student involved in several time-consuming activities like sports, multiple AP classes, and Model UN that often cause me stress, I can firmly say that one week of spring break is plenty of time for stressed students to decompress and catch up on homework. It makes sense to have two weeks of winter break so that families can travel for the holidays, but two weeks of spring break during competition season is simply excessive and harms student athletes—of which our school happens to have a large portion of—rather than supporting them, as they could be spending that time at practice.
Please strongly consider choosing calendar A over calendars B and C. Furthermore, the added days on to the school year would be well spent as community service or career preparedness workshops. Our community already has a high graduation rate compared to most schools in New Mexico, and our students are generally very academically inclined, so using these days as pure class time is a waste. By implementing community service or career preparedness workshops, the entire Los Alamos community would further benefit from the added school days. Adding school days onto the school year without enriching the program will not increase the quality of education given at Los Alamos High School, therefore not increasing graduation rates and possibly discouraging many students from even attending school. By not implementing calendar A, student athletes and students who work would lose a week of valuable time in sports practice and working hours, respectively.
In addition, please recognise the lack of breaks in 2nd semester compared to those planned in 1st semester, as well as how far into the semester spring break is, and consider moving Calendar A’s spring break forward by a week or two in order to prevent heavy burnout at the school, as both students and teachers are extremely exhausted after the third quarter where there are no breaks.
Thank you for taking the time to consider my perspective.
Best regards,
Audrey See
This email has been sent from a verified laschools.net user.