A2 News
The Chronicle
May 24, 2023
School responds after second student death By Davis Marks and Grant Park
affected. We want them to be able to continue to have the ability to learn without the added stress and The school enacted new ac- worry of a negative impact to their ademic policies and mental end of year grades.” Peer Support Trainee Ellie health initiatives intended to support students following the Whang ’24 said she appreciates deaths of Jordan Park ’25 and the effort the school has made to Jonah Anschell ’23 in March support students during this time. “With such difficult and and April. The school has planned field heartbreaking events, the school days, held chalk decorating on has responded in the best way the Quad, brought puppies to they could’ve, given the circumcampus and hosted Asian Amer- stances,” Whang said. “With a ican Pacific Islander (AAPI) campus of around 900 students, I counselors to support the AAPI think it’s important to remember and acknowledge that everyone community Park was a part of. Counselor Michelle Bracken processes grief in different speeds said while individually support- and ways, so it was almost imposing students is important, the sible for the school to meet absocounseling team is working to lutely everyone where they were guide the community as a whole. at, leading the administration “We’re good at one-on-one to do the next best thing, which conversations, and we have a lot was emphasizing the support and resources we have on of counselors here, but campus so that each we need to focus on student is able to have building community,” a space where they can Bracken said. “This process their feelings. school can be individuI recognize that other alistic and competitive, students may disagree so we need to focus on with me in the sense building a communithat they felt the school ty of empathy. When didn’t respond in an L. Wood we have tragedies like appropriate way, but I Michelle this in our communithink with events like Bracken ty, we’re really good these, there is no ‘right’ at coming together, but how do we do that in gen- way to handle them, and all we eral? One thing that’s come out can do now is support each other of this is thinking about ways in these tough times.” President Rick Commons said to promote community, such as playing on the field together the community must work togethand doing some of those normal er to heal after losing two students. “It’s critical for us as an instithings that we don’t normally tution to grow and evolve in ways make time for.” On the day following the that respond to the tragedies announcement of Anschell’s we’ve experienced,” Commons death by suicide, Head of Upper said. “We recognize that mental School Beth Slattery informed health challenges affect families upper school students via email across the country right now. We that grades could no longer drop are experiencing enormous and tragic pain that is associated during fourth quarter. “The floor is the grade of record with the larger problem, which published for the third quarter,” doesn’t have us looking away Slattery wrote in the email. “Stu- from it, but has us looking right dents are expected to take assess- at it and recognizing that we ments, turn in homework, papers have to evolve as we think about [and] projects, but without fear Jonah and Jordan.” • Continued on hwchronicle.com that their grade could be negatively
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TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL: Upper School Deans Celso Cárdenas and Sara Miranda pose for a picture at Waffle House during the 2022 Spring Break College Tour. Cárdenas and Miranda are departing the school.
Administration hires three new Deans after multiple departures By Iona Lee and Averie Perrin
The school hired Sarah Miller, Jesse Reuter and English teacher Adam Levine to serve as deans beginning in the 20232024 school year. Miller, who currently works at Marymount High School as the Co-Director of College Counseling, will replace departing Dean Sara Miranda, inheriting her existing group of sophomores and juniors. Reuter, a counselor at Loyola High School, will do the same for Celso Cardenas, who is also leaving. As a part of a plan to expand the upper school counseling system, Levine will begin his tenure as dean with only sophomores. Two further deans will be added before the 2024-2025 school year, increasing the total number from 10 to 12. The school had planned to add two new deans for the 2023-2024 school year before Cardenas and Miranda
LIVENING UP THE LIBRARY: Mudd Library will be closed from June through November for construction as it is remodeled and renovated.
that we have multiple support systems in place for all of our students,” Commons said. “So [we are] expanding our counseling staff, expanding our Learning Center and relocating it so that it’ll be more accessible and more of a hub. Then [we are] expanding the number of deans so that the ratio of deans to students goes down, so that a sophomore in the fall of [their] new experience at the Upper School doesn’t feel like [they] can’t talk to [their] dean because the dean is so busy dealing with seniors who are applying to college.” Commons said the school will rely on donations, not tuition increases, to fund the salaries of the new deans for the 2024-2025 school year. “We’re working on the funding for [adding new deans],” Commons said. “We’ll have some generous alumni and parents who believe in the need for additional attention to sophomores, juniors and seniors.”
Library to undergo renovations following end of the school year By Lily Lee
DAVIS MARKS/CHRONICLE
announced their departures. Head of Upper School Beth Slattery said the school is expanding the number of deans and is considering the establishment of a 10th-grade advisory in an effort to create closer relationships between students and adults and provide more support. “The more adults who know kids and have relationships with them, the better,” Slattery said. “Not everybody jives with their dean, and so reducing the dean to student ratio, especially for sophomores, and having the additional sophomore advisory, [students] have another adult who they get to see every week.” After the deaths of two upper school students this Spring, President Rick Commons said providing mental health resources for students new to the Upper School has become more important. “The dean plan was in place before we experienced the tragedies, and it certainly makes it feel more urgent to us to make sure
Mudd Library will be closed for renovations from the end of the school year to late November, according to Director of Operations Dave Mintz. During the construction period, the Feldman-Horn Gallery will act as a temporary, scaled-down library. Renovations will include the addition of new group study rooms, a multi-purpose classroom, collaborative workspace near the Kutler Center and more reading nooks, according to Head of Upper School Beth Slattery. Additionally, the Learning Center, which is currently located on the second floor of Seaver Academic Center, will be moved into the current Tech Center and Language Lab. Slattery said she hopes the new library space will serve as a place for students and teachers to enjoy. “I’m really excited about the changes because it’s allowing us to be intentional in our use of space,” Slattery said. “We strug-
gle with space on this campus and often we put things wherever they will fit rather than thinking about where they are best-suited. This allows us to think about how space can help students thrive.” Mintz said the updated library will include comfortable areas for students to relax and read. “I believe that the student body will find the updated library to be welcoming, exciting and it’s our hope that it becomes the central hub to which students and teachers alike will be drawn,” Mintz said. Librarian Jessica Wahl said the librarians are excited about the new space and the ways it will support the student body. “We want a space that will serve whatever needs students may have, whether it is a quiet study space or a place to just relax and hang out with friends,” Wahl said. “We think students will enjoy it and see it as a more amplified version of the library they already enjoy.”
Wahl said although the temporary library will hold a limited number of books, students will still have access to textbooks, English curriculum materials and computer chargers. “Ms. [Kacie] Cox, Ms. [Edith] Darling and myself will still be available to help students with any questions they may have during the renovation,” Wahl said. “Although the library as a study and hang out space won’t be available until after the renovations are complete, we want students to remember that this is just temporary and the library will be back and better than ever.” Illi Kreiz ’24 said while the construction may be inconvenient, she recognizes the benefits. “I’m sad that [the library] will be closed for the first few months of school because I know I’m gonna need it because of senior-year work,” Kreiz said. “I’m really excited to see how they change it, though, and know it will be really beneficial to future Harvard-Westlake students.”