By Erika C. and Sheila B.
After June graduation at the Family Foundation School, the number of girl students in the school declined.
The houses were unbalanced, with 11 girls in some families and only four in another. In some houses, there was also only one senior girl, putting an enormous amount of pressure on certain students.
Rita Argiros, Administrative Vice-President, began to hear many complaints of not having enough support. She decided to hold a meeting, getting all the female staff and students involved in coming up with a solution.
The meeting was held on Tuesday, September 8, during lunch.
After a short introduction from Argiros, who addressed the problem and explained why we were all together, the floor was opened to the students.
Argiros was very interested in how they thought the problem should be solved. Many suggestions were offered. Mary Hanstine, a teacher at FFS, said, “The meeting gave the girls in the community an opportunity to engage in a level of problem-solving that they don’t do often.” One suggestion was to completely shuffle all the girls in the school, placing them in new houses with a different group of girls.
Another suggestion was to combine two families that needed more girls. The boys in these houses would be transferred into the five other houses.
A third suggestion called for a list of girls who would be willing to move to a different house if it meant helping out a house that was struggling. The suggestion was to move girls where they were needed for senior support or for strength in numbers.
On Thursday, September 10, Argiros asked Family Leaders from each house to pick two girls to attend a follow-up meeting in Whiting Hall. The meeting was to review the list of those who had volunteered to switch families, and to decide which girls would work best in which houses.
The female students and staff from each family worked together to decide which girls needed a fresh start, which girls would benefit from switching, and which girls needed to stay where they were.
It was explained by both Rita and Annie Argiros that nothing was set in stone as far as switches went, and that this was just the first step in the process.
Since the last meeting on September 10, five girls have switched houses. Karen S. and Sarah B. switched from Smith House to Talbot House to help out and to give back to the girls.
Sarah V., Anna R. and Raven S. moved into Mann House. Sarah and Anna came from Lake House and Raven from Smith House.
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