Those of us who are familiar with other arts high schools understand that the tensions that exist for our students as they balance their responsibilities in arts and academics is not a problem to be solved, but a phenomenon to effectively manage.  There is no quick fix for this for our students.  We must recognize that these tensions will be with us always, and that stress for our students will always be a reality.  At same time, we must ensure that we do everything possible to support our students as they navigate these inevitable tensions.  Most imporatntly we must ensure that we do not exacerbate these tensions for our students.  Ineffective communication, lack of coordination, and inflexibility amongst and between the adults makes certain unnecessary stress on our students.

I was pleased that this year the film faculty, Jon Artigo, Madison Eginton, and Javier Armijo voluntarily implemented a new policy for students participating in the 64-Hour Film Festival: students films would be disqualified if students had unexcused absences the Monday following this weekend.  Although students were certainly weary and blurry-eyed absences were less of a problem than in previous years.  The 3rd Annual 64-Hour Film Festival, which premiered this past Saturday night was a huge success!

Knowing LACHSA as I do, I am well aware that student accountability is much less of a problem than a culture of ineffective communication, lack of coordination, and inflexibility amongst and between adults. 

Over the past three years we have taken very concrete steps to support our students.  These include more coordination between arts and academic events on our master calendar; a focused academic exam schedule; more sustained breaks including Thanksgiving and ending the semester at our Winter Break; excusing absences for auditions, among others things.

This year we continue to build upon our work supporting our students.  With all production 'tech' weeks-those involving music, theatre, dance, and musical theatre productions-we are putting in place a new protocol to better support our students.  As an aside our 'tech' weeks have been alternatively referred to as 'Hell' weeks by our students, for the amount of 'Hell' our students endure as part of their LACHSA experience.  I find it curious that we as a community have collectively shrugged as students endure one 'Hell' week to another.  Our students most certainly deserve a lot less 'Hell' during their experience at LACHSA.

This new protocol will go into effect this week in preparation for our upcoming production of Phantom of the Opera and will feature the following: dedicated and proctored homework space for students who are not needed on stage, a reasonable end time to rehearsals, a clearly communicated rehearsal schedule to all academic faculty, and arts 'give back' time following the production.   

Arts Give back time recognizes that during any 'tech' week our students understandably prioritize their participation in their arts production.  Following the production, time will be devoted in their arts class to students' prioritizing their academic work.  During their arts time students will have the opportunity to meet with academic teachers and work on academic work. 

All of this was announced to all of our opera students this past week by the entire LACHSA admin team, Stephanie Vlahos founder of the First Circle Opera Project at LACHSA, and the chairs of music and every academic department.  It is my hope that these new steps, delivered by a unified arts and academic faculty, would signal to our students our collective support during this stressful time.

I have every confidence that Phantom of the Opera will be just as successful as other opera productions.  This should not come at the expense of our students' academic success or personal health.  LACHSA will never be a school free of stress, but we must be one where the adults are vigilant in support of our students as artists and scholars.