What is going on with Samo?

The Samohi Staff2012-2013With Samo’s current principal and four of its five house principals leaving their posts, there is no question that our school is headed for change. The only question is, what exactly is that change?According to Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Superintendent Sandra Lyon, the administrative change is part of her new vision for the school district. The only problem is, she has yet to share concrete details on what that vision entails.“As I developed my plan and vision for Samo and other schools, several administrators were given varied options for the ensuing school year,” Lyon wrote to the Santa Monica Mirror. “Some administrators have decided, instead, to embark on different career paths and to seek other administrative and leadership opportunities as a result.”There is a chance that the change our school will go through will not be major. However, the void in communication between Lyon and the school has pushed some people to jump to the worst conclusion about the direction Samo is headed.It’s one thing to have one new administrative member come in, but to have almost a complete change of guard is concerning, to say the least. The new administrative members are competent and have remarkable credentials, but Samo will have an administration that for the most part has never led our school before. It is foolish to expect that anyone, even the most qualified person, would be able to walk into a new school and immediately be able to excel at their job, yet this reality is exacerbated by the fact that these new administrators will have precious few peers to show them the inner workings of the school, since most of the previous administration will be gone.Samo also has more administrators than a typical high school. This means that more people have to work together in order for the school to run smoothly.It seems as though such an administrative shake-up would be reserved for schools with failing Academic Performance Index (API) scores or massive cheating scandals. However, last year, Samo’s API score jumped 18 points from 805 to 823, so there seems to be no obvious reason behind why our school is going through the biggest administration change in recent years. Samo’s improvement was so drastic that it had the largest point jump out of any of its local peer institutions.However, some people are welcoming the chance of change with open arms. They are hoping for a more smoothly run school with better communication.The main issue we have is not the change, but  that Lyon has not made it clear what her vision is. It is reasonable to see that there is well-placed concern at such a big transition. It is therefore even more reasonable to understand why parents, students and faculty have the right to know Lyon’s exact plans for the school. If we are to face new policies due to such drastic change in administration, we at least deserve to know what the new direction we are going in is.eic@thesamohi.com