New stress reducing plan benefits students

By Elora Brow

Staff Writer

Principal Dr. Ben Dale has been searching for ways to help reduce the stress and anxiety of Costa’s students and has begun implementing the new office hours plan.  This will be beneficial to the students as it can reduce their stress and anxiety levels.

This new plan was established in order to help reduce the stress and anxiety of students. They added in office hours on Wednesdays to help students get some of their work done, they are encouraging students to limit their courses and extracurricular activities, and they removed three zero period classes.

In the upcoming years it would be helpful for more to be added to reduce stress. For example, having all teachers use the same learning management systems, having a limit for the amount of homework that can be given per class each night, and for testing days to be reserved for certain departments so that students are not overwhelmed by the amount of tests in one day. As well as limits on schedules, such as a specific number of honors and AP classes one student can take per year. This can all help balance schedules so that there is time for extra curricular activities.

According to Dale, our goal is not to make school easier, but to make it easier on the students. School will never be easy but the little changes that are being made through Dr. Dale and the rest of administration can make a huge difference with student stress and anxiety.

The new office hours are beneficial because it encourages students to get ahead on all their homework and for them to take more time studying for tests. Now students don’t need to worry as much about not having enough time to study or complete their work that is due later on in the week because they are given two additional hours to complete it. Along with that they can talk to their teachers and classmates about any confusion they have in a specific class.

Along with the office hours plan, three zero period classes were removed. This was aimed to be helpful so that more students could gain an extra hour of sleep and not worry about the extra class. However, it harms students because it leaves 90 students with no room to take their desired course. This adds on even more stress for the following years as they worry about not meeting their graduation requirements. This is a smart plan, but a different solution that does not involve removing courses would be a lot more helpful.

Dale and the rest of the MBUSD administration has put lots of time and effort into reducing stress, by adding in office hours, removing three zero periods, and collaborating more with students about their schedules. As the next few years come around, hopefully more ideas will be put into action and make school more enjoyable for everyone.