Harvard-Westlake • Studio City • Volume 34 • Issue 3 • Dec. 18, 2024 • hwchronicle.com
Tuition increased by 6%
Security implements new policy
By Colin Ho
By Yuna Jeon
Tuition for the 2023-2024 school year has risen to $49,700, a 6% increase from $46,900 last year. Adjusted for inflation, this is an increase of around $1,200. Chief Financial Officer David Weil ’93 said the higher tuition is used to cover rising operating expenses and to give faculty and staff raises in pay. “Insurance, utilities and supply costs all naturally go up over time, not to mention the need to ensure our employees receive wages commensurate with their professional talents,” Weil said. “Teacher salaries were increased this year, reflecting the hard work that our colleagues undertake but also in recognition of increased costs of living in Los Angeles.” With the 2024-2025 Annual Giving campaign reaching a new high of $10.2 million raised, breaking the record of $10 million reached in the 2023-2024 campaign, Weil said he felt that the past year was a financial success for the school. “We always need to make choices [and] prioritize where we devote attention, but in that regard I do feel that our financial operations last year supported the school well,” Weil said. “I consider a fiscal year to be successful if we have correctly focused our resources in the areas that make this school special, like our programs, employees and the broader community of families. The Annual Giving campaign was also successful, having fantastic participation among our families and yet another year of 100% giving from faculty and staff.” Director of Financial Aid Greg Gonzalez said tuition money and the school’s endowment are used to grant financial aid to students in need. 20% of students receive financial aid, which on average covers 72% of the cost of tuition. Additionally, financial aid grants include the costs of retreats, required textbooks and technology stipends.
leave after their last obligation of the day,” Slattery said. “And so they’re telling their teachers that the only time they can meet is during lunch, even though they really could meet later in the day. They just don’t want to, which I totally get. But now I have teachers who don’t get to eat lunch and people not necessarily using time wisely, or people monopolizing teachers’ time.” Hannah Fong ’26 said she thinks changing the school schedule will not necessarily balance students’ time-consuming schedules. “I think people generally make use of Community Time when they need to,” Fong said. “Even though there may be people that aren’t being efficient about managing work and teacher meetings, I don’t know if rotating the Community Time block would cause people to be more productive.” Although not recommended, current school policy allows sophomores to take seven blocks and a Directed Study. Slattery said the administration is considering prohibiting this full schedule for sophomores to alleviate academic pressure and prevent overcommitment.
The Upper School security team will enforce a new visitor screening system starting Jan. 6 after initial testing in the weeks leading up to winter break. The visitor screening process will require all guests on campus to provide identification, which will then be cross-referenced with the National Sex Offender Registry and FBI databases to look for any possible matches. Once guests are cleared and entered into the system, they will then be given a visitor pass, and all future visits will only require a photo taken by security because the system automatically recognizes the guest. Faculty and staff will have access to a website where they can pre-register their guests and notify security in advance of any expected visitors. In addition, faculty and staff will be required to display rearview mirror placards on their vehicles which will replace the smaller stickers previously used for faculty and staff vehicle identification. Head of Communications and Strategic Initiatives Ari Engelberg ’89 said the updates were not initiated by security concerns, but by the high volume of guests on both campuses and shifting priorities of campus security. “Given the number of visitors to our campuses, we felt it appropriate to upgrade our systems to better track and screen guests,” Engelberg said. “We recognize that the security environment around schools has changed quite a bit in the last 20 years, and we occasionally make our own changes based on evolving needs.” Engelberg said the new placards for vehicles will help security quickly identify which guests must be screened. “One advantage of the placards beyond parking enforcement is that when they are hanging from the rearview mirror, our security guards can recognize who belongs on campus or a guest that needs to be stopped.”
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Caring For Consent: Students and faculty discuss the importance of shared consent in relationships and intimate situations.
Fall Jazz Blues: Upper school jazz ensembles performed in the Fall Jazz Concert, their first of the year, Dec. 12.
Coaching Changes: The girls basketball team is off to a 7-2 start after new Interim Head Coach Alex Nailes has taken over.
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USING TIME WISELY: History Teacher Erik Wade works with a student during a meeting. The administration is discussing possible revisions to the school day to free up teacher schedules and plan more community-bonding events.
Admin in talks of revising schedule to alleviate stress, improve community By Ella Jeon and Alex Reisner The school is beginning to consider ways they can refine the daily schedule to improve student time efficiency and limit academic overcommitment, according to Head of Upper School Beth Slattery. Slattery said a new committee led by Assistant Head of School for Community and Belonging Janine Jones was made to discuss and brainstorm possible adjustments to the schedule. These proposed changes — not yet approved — include moving the Community Time block earlier in the day, planning more community-focused events, limiting the number of classes sophomores can enroll in and adding a junior advisory to the schedule. Slattery said the committee is considering rotating the Community Time block with the rest of the seven class blocks in the schedule so students feel that they are not being deprived of leaving school early on certain days. “There are two days out of the cycle where the day ends with stuff that doesn’t feel like an obligation,
community time and Directed Study,” Slattery said. “I wish that we could incentivize people wanting to be on campus and do things during the day. So, we are thinking of having Community Time sometimes meet earlier in the day.” Slattery said the administration is looking to use the hourlong period to plan more activities that promote community connection and bonding. “We also don’t necessarily use Community Time to do things that build community,” Slattery said. “So my argument is, for things like the Multicultural Fair, the Activities Fair and field days, because those are things that help to build community, I’d like to figure out how we can do more things that bring people together, as opposed to having people resentful that they have to be done.” Slattery said while she understands why students want to leave school once their scheduled classes are over, it negatively affects teacher schedules since they are forced to meet primarily during lunch blocks. “A lot of people, especially juniors and seniors, want to
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IN THIS ISSUE
A4 Educating Excellence: Chinese Teacher Bin He was elected to be the President of the Chinse Language Teachers’ Association.
A11 Gains From Games: Assistant Opinion Editor Audrey Kim ’26 discusses the underlying benefits of playing video games.