After years in the making, Laguna Beach High School celebrated the grand opening of its new campus well space for students on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
In recent years, Laguna Beach Unified School District has attempted to strengthen student support systems by adding student support specialists and psychologists at every school site in the district. The new well space at LBHS is connected to the student support specialist’s office, ensuring students have ready access to a school-based mental health provider to support them in using healthy coping strategies.
“This is a very exciting day for Laguna Beach High School with the opening of our very first well space. This center will provide a space for students to take a breather, take a break, and just break away from school for a moment,” said peer mentor Parker Forgash. “I started at this high school two years ago before any well space was ever here, and with the struggles I faced, I know this space will allow for students to talk to someone if they need to and just take a break.”
The well space’s purpose is to be a calm and peaceful retreat for students needing to take a break from the pressures of academic life. It is equipped with comfortable seating, soft lighting and various calming activities, such as coloring books and puzzles. All activities in the room are designed to soothe the nervous system.
“We recognize that high school can be a stressful time, and we want to provide our students with the resources they need to manage their stress in healthy ways. This is one more way students can access direct and immediate support on campus,” high school principal Jason Allemann said. “This is in addition to our caring staff, school counselors, psychologist, and school resource officer who are there to support the well-being of students while they’re at school. We’ve been working towards this for years, and it’s a reality because of a shared vision supported by our district leadership and board of education.”
Students can visit The Wave, as the new space will be named, either through drop-in sessions or by scheduling an appointment.
I wonder how much stress was created by the LBUSD’s failure to re-open our schools for in-class learning when surrounding school district with much less resources were able to do so?
I wonder how much stress and anxiety has been created by the LBUSD’s failure to “EDUCATE” our students as they fell behind academically. (Over 10% decline in academic achievement. (3-times greater than other surrounding school districts)
I wonder how much emotional damage the LBUSD caused by their isolating and masking policies. Private Schools and proactive student first Districts seemed to fair much better than the draconian Teacher and Administrator first policies of the LBUSD.
I wonder how the Leadership of the LBUSD and School Board can deflect the fact that our 4 small and shrinking schools have lost over 500 students?
I wonder how the LBUSD with an $80 million dollar Budget for less than 2600 students can continue to get away with these basic quantifiable FACTS?
I guess when you can’t champion academic achievements, student and parent retention, or happy motivated students its best to direct your energies towards: water-polo pools, new offices for poorly performing Superintendents, and wellness centers for the harm inflicted to our students by the LBUSD’s policies and decisions.
If you want change and care about the students in Laguna Beach it starts at the top:
Over $1 million dollars of salaries and benefits for a Superintendent with (3) Ass. Superintendents with (4) small and shrinking Schools with less than 2600 students.
The Laguna Beach citizens are saddled with an enabling School Board that does not understand that they were elected to oversee the LBUSD NOT just be a rubber Stamp for guaranteed pay raises for a failing Superintendent and his selected chosen.
Question:
School Power funded this wellness center to get it started; who funds it from here to eternity?
The LBUSD needs to re-focus their priorities back to education, curriculum, and academics. This is what teachers are trained for and what is currently lacking in our schools.
Leave the parenting and emotional well-being to the families; this will help avoid placing the Laguna Beach tax payer in harms way from LBUSD’s poor decisions and policies.
We have (4) of the most beautiful campuses on the planet with over a $30K per student budget. We should expect a much better product.