Administration announces that students can collect textbooks

By Kyra Williams

Executive News Editor

and Kareena Dhillon

Executive Opinion Editor

Mira Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale announced today that students can collect all school textbooks and novels in an email sent to teachers.

Students picked up books after third period today and can pick up books in room 15 tomorrow from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m and after Thanksgiving Break. In order to receive textbooks, students must fill out a green paper with the books they need, and a parent volunteer will distribute them. Although students have access to books, the library is still under construction and there is no expected opening date at this time, Dale said. According to Dale, since some cabinetry has been removed, the carpet has been pulled up and there is paint on the walls, the interior of the library still needs to be redone.

“[The textbook distribution] seems last minute and unexpected but as all aspects of this process, we just have to accept that this is the way we are going to move forward,” English teacher Shawn Chen said. “Although people may have a sense of mistrust about the safety of the textbooks, the process required involvement from many agencies including the Los Angeles County Hazardous Materials Division. The opening of the library required clean up of many areas.”

Dale sent out an email on Nov. 6 with a summary of a campus walk the administration conducted in order to get a complete picture of the textbook situation in classes, he said. They found that 23 out of the 106 teachers do not use textbooks in their classes. Out of 83 teachers, 41 rated their typically textbook usage as heavy. All 41 of those teachers have either made copies of the needed sections, found online versions, used class sets, had students share or take photos or posted certain pages on Canvas, Dale said.

“We went around and talked to teachers and classes and really narrowed down a couple of classes that rely on textbooks,” Dale said. “However, our teachers are very resourceful and rallied as usual. Semester-long classes, I think, were the most impacted.”