The Miramonte Administrative team, The Mirador Editors-in-Chief (EICs), and The Mirador staff advisor Donia Gousios will host two press conferences on Nov. 16 and Nov. 17. The Administrative team will answer attendees’ questions, while the EICs moderate the discussion. The press conferences are designed to inform parents and students about current events, issues, and programming that impact students, staff, and families. 

The Nov. 16 conference is for parents to hear from the Administrative team, consisting of Principal Ben Campopiano and Vice Principals Bruce Giron and Sukanya Goswami, and will take place in the Miramonte Theater from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. The students will also have the opportunity to hear from the Administrative team in the theater from 10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. on Nov. 17 during the Academy period. Students are not required to attend and can sign up for the conference through TeachMore as they would for any other Academy. The conferences will provide clarity and context to changes occurring at Miramonte and throughout the Acalanes Union High School District. 

Campopiano reached out to The Mirador EICs, seniors Emma Leibowitz and Henry Hill, on Oct. 18 and asked them to work on a plan for the press conferences. “The Mirador EICs, myself and Henry, and our Online EICs, Paige [Mays] and Jonathan [Pham], will act as moderators and host the press conferences, but it will be the administrators who are answering attendees’ questions,” Leibowitz said. 

Parents and students can submit questions they would like the administrators to address via a Google Form, which can be accessed using a QR code published in Issue 2 of The Mirador, a Parents Club newsletter featuring a message from Campopiano, and The Mirador website at mhsmirador.com prior to the press conferences. The Mirador EICs will then pick out ten to twenty questions that are the most frequently asked or the most relevant. A master list of questions will be made, which will be reviewed by Gousios and shared with Campopiano and the administrators. These questions will then be answered during the two conferences. Questions that arise for students and parents during the conferences will not be answered by administrators, so if attendees have questions after the conferences, they will be able to submit them online for follow-up at a later date. Also, both press conferences will be livestreamed and recorded to be shared on The Mirador social media platforms.

“The Mirador press conferences will give students and parents an opportunity to hear directly from the administration about school issues and news. This is important because it opens up communication, improves transparency, and builds trust and connection. The press conferences will be hosted by The Mirador and will be similar to a Q&A session. This provides Mirador students an opportunity to develop their skills in this area, and helps keep things student-centered, which is one of my goals,” Campopiano said. If the conferences are beneficial and the attendees enjoy them, then there is the possibility of the administration and Mirador hosting more throughout the school year. 

“I think the press conferences are a good idea because it is necessary that students and parents alike understand how different issues are impacting our community at Miramonte,” senior Ava Lagaay said. “By reaching out to students and parents and allowing them to ask questions and attend the conferences in general, the Miramonte administration will be able to see what topics people want to learn about. I feel that the conferences will bring the community closer together.” 

Both Hill and Leibowitz attended the Medill Cherubs Summer Workshop, a summer journalism intensive at Northwestern University, where they got to practice asking questions at and gaining information from mock press conferences. Now they plan to use their skills to inform their immediate community. “I’m very excited to have the opportunity to moderate a much-needed conversation between our community and Miramonte’s new administration. I hope all parents and students take advantage of this platform to ask meaningful and relevant questions,” Hill said.