2024 at Arroyo Grande High School brings in a new semester, new challenges, and chances for students and staff to make a difference at the school.
Arroyo Grande High School helps students and staff, but possible areas of improvement should be highlighted to make the campus a better place.
Staff participation is a great way for staff and students at AGHS to get involved. One way is through the Lunch Time Activities.
“Getting teachers out during Lunch Time Activities [is important] just so students can see that we are teachers, but we can be cool and enjoy being here,” Miranda Gasenica, AP Psychology teacher, said.
It sends a message to the students that the teacher is taking time out of their day to get to know students and that students and teachers can have fun.
Students seeing staff members immersing themselves in school activities breaks down the barrier. Staff members are only here to teach, but this allows students to see teachers having fun. AGHS can do this through staff vs. students games, more teachers involved in Lunch Time Activities, and more.
However, a push for staff involvement can be challenging for teachers with only 30 minutes of lunch time.
Teachers need time to eat their lunch, do any outstanding tasks, and try to squeeze in time to spend with students. There is not enough time to complete everything.
Staff should also be conversing with one another to build better work-time relationships. Departments can bury teachers, causing them to not talk beyond that. Something AGHS could use is a staff room or an area where teachers can buy lunch and sit together to converse to build a better camaraderie. This is something Gasenica was fortunate enough to experience when she was student teaching in Santa Barbara.
“[A staff room] was a cool way to bring together the staff community, showing that they were much more staff-driven,” Gasenica said.
She later mentioned that it affected the quality of the school overall.
“Teachers were excited to be there, so the quality was a little different,” Gasenica said.
Gavin Jones (‘25) also highlighted an area of constant conversation—the bathroom situation at the school.
“[Students] have to walk far or even can’t go [to the bathroom] at some points [during the day],” Jones said.
The bathrooms at AGHS are consistently closed in the senior hall, by the office, and other bathrooms scattered throughout the school. This leaves only the new bathrooms by the 1000’s wing and by the 500’s wing. However, these can easily become congested, leaving insufficient space and causing students to arrive late. Missing a large amount of class time can result in the student not being able to use the bathroom at all.
Aimed to allow constant monitoring and curb the vaping problem, the school closes most of the school bathrooms at all times.
Jones also feels that the school can hyper-fixate on students’ personal lives.
“It feels like the school gets involved in people’s personal lives too often,” Jones said.
He felt there is a line between individuals’ school lives and their personal lives.
“We’re here at school to learn, [AGHS and staff] shouldn’t be invading our personal space,” Jones said.
Personal space is essential to people’s lives. When breached, it’s understandable that it can create tension between students and staff.
Better student and staff relationships allow individuals to understand each other better. When these lines are crossed, the experience at the AGHS is dampened for students.
Another possible goal for AGHS is to eliminate advisory on Mondays. Ella Rose (‘24) strongly feels that advisory is a waste of time. This 30-minute block brings students together for weekly announcements and activities.
“It’s overall a waste of time for us [students] and teachers,” Rose said.
Rose is not alone with her opinion. AGHS moved advisory from before first period to after second period to combat the high absence numbers seen in previous years.
While these are valid areas for improvement and are certainly something that AGHS could strive to make possible, so much depends on the students’ effort.
Building better relationships with teachers means students must take time to get to know their teachers and talk to them. Having more bathrooms open means that students must show they can control themselves in the bathroom and not abuse the space. In the end, it boils down to students’ effort.
“We [students] don’t do ourselves favors for the privileges we want,” Rose said. “If we want more freedom, we have to show it.”
Not all students want to be at school, and the negativity affects those around them. If students wish for the school to be a better place, they should be accepting of the situation and make it the best possible experience to solve issues at the school.
