By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter
Palisades Charter High School’s Board of Trustees took a moment to reflect on the year’s successes last week, before returning their attention to end-of-term stressors.
Those challenges faded to the background for just a moment as Principal Dr. Pam Magee reviewed PaliHi’s progress on a set of school-wide goals, laid out at the start of the year.
Magee congratulated the board and school community on their efforts to improve PaliHi’s overall “climate” through programs that “focus on the student voice,” such as the school’s first Student Bill of Rights—ratified earlier this year—and the recent Safe Zone Resolution that affirmed the administration’s stance on protecting immigration records.
The positive reflection provided a brief reprieve from the school’s final push toward graduation.
Mental health remained a hot topic, as the board continued to seek new ways to support the student body—a particularly important effort, board members noted, at the end of the year when exams and post-graduation plans lead to increased stress.
The board is crafting a new Youth Suicide Prevention Policy, now required by state law.
The policy will train teachers on suicide awareness and prevention measures, set a plan for the school to emphasize the needs of “high-risk” groups and set policies for supporting the student body in the unfortunate case of a suicide.
“There are a lot of stresses with being an adolescent in our day and time,” Magee said.
The board also sought to address student needs through PaliHi’s school-wide grading policy, an effort to make grades and expectations more uniform across classes.
Though the board voted in favor of some teacher-approved modifications to the policy, math teacher and football coach Michael Friedman told the board that the school’s grading practices still leave plenty to be desired.
“I am consumed with concern about how the school operates,” Friedman said, noting inconsistencies in the faculty’s approach to cellphone use, cheating and make-up days for student-athletes.
Board chair Emilie Larew noted that grading policies have always been “controversial” and a “heated topic among the faculty.” The board promised continued discussion and teacher input.
Friedman will have a prominent voice in that discussion—he’s set to join the board next fall.
The conclusion of a tenuous LAUSD school board race provided the background for all this discussion—the city was tallying votes for District Four’s fierce runoff election as the Tuesday evening meeting concluded.
Though the charter group-backed Nick Melvoin emerged victorious, the race’s rhetoric and recently proposed legislation in California’s legislature have raised tensions in charters like PaliHi.
Magee said the school would continue to share their successful “charter story” as an example to other schools and a testament to the model.
She also urged vigilance regarding policies that could limit their school’s independence.
“We all need to have a little bit more of an awareness of legislation that’s being passed that could have an impact on our governance policies and our ability to run our school in a way that we believe is best for students,” the principal said.
Incumbent LAUSD board president Steve Zimmer had endorsed SB 808, a bill that would enable the district to shut down charters if they’re deemed a threat to the resources of district schools.
Now Melvoin, who denounced the bill, has taken his place.
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