In addition to teachers, many administrators and counselors at Cypress High School work hard to ensure every student can succeed throughout their four years at Cypress. These staff members put in a lot of behind-the-scenes work that people normally don’t see. In addition to the administrators and counselors, there are social workers, Ms. Bristol Lopez and Mr. Daniel Lorigo.
Some of the administrative team’s jobs, focus on disciplining students, helping them with their future careers, ensuring safety, and setting life goals even beyond high school. 10th grade Assistant Principal Dr. Daniel Lieu says, “Even though it looks like we’re doing a lot of logistical tasks on the computer, we still have many student interactions. I work with our school staff and teachers to arrange classrooms students test in and figure out if there is any conflicts with students who have two AP tests on the same day.”
11th grade Assistant Principal Mr. Eric Tenorio explains, “People don’t realize the amount of work outside the classroom that has to happen to make sure that we’re running a good school. It could be things like working and speaking to the parents, making sure the bells are working, and making sure we have a functioning cafeteria.”
All these things that happen here at Cypress don’t happen with just one person; it takes a collective effort of multiple people. 9th grade Assistant Principal Mrs. Lauren Choi shared, “You have to collaborate with different people you work with. You work with other administrators, but there’s also collaboration with case carriers, department chairs, AIDs in the classrooms, and collaboration with the parents.”
Being an assistant principal is not easy when answering emails or working with students and teachers. 12th grade Assistant principal Ms. Jana Kovar says, “I take it each step at a time because a job can be overwhelming and you can have seven, eight things hitting you all at the same time and you have to figure out how to time manage it and then attack.”
A school’s social worker’s job is to ensure that students are happy, healthy, and safe, whether it’s providing mental health resources or meeting with a student for a couple of sessions. But as a social worker, they don’t just meet with students every week. Ms. Bristol Lopez says, “One thing we do is professional development training for teachers and staff. We train them on how to manage a situation say if a student has an emergency or a crisis concern in the classroom, we train them on how they get the student where that student needs to be.” She added, “One thing people don’t realize is that as school social workers, we go graduate school to get our masters in social work and we’re trained to be mental health therapists. So when we provide mental health treatment to students at school, that’s our expertise.”
The counselors here at Cypress have many different jobs that can sometimes be overlooked. Senior counselor Ms. Carrie Vaughn says, “People think that as counselors, we sit and make schedule changes, and that’s not the case. We want to build the capacity of our students, whether it’s academic, college, or career, as well as social and emotional. I take it to heart just really getting to know my students and making sure that they know how to find me if they have a question.”
These staff members do a lot of work outside each classroom to ensure the school runs smoothly and are always ready to support students. Thanks to the administrative team, counselors, and social worker’s efforts, Cypress High ensures student’s physical, emotional, and academic success.
