The James Logan Courier

By Beatrice Esteban, Courier Editor-in-Chief

The house system at James Logan High School has been modified, starting the 2010-2011 school year.

Students are assigned to one of three “houses” with two principals each. House one, located next to the Counseling Center and otherwise known as the “purple house”, is overseen by Grace Kim and Francis Rojas. The “green” house, house two, is overseen by Yvonne Hull and Abhi Brar and is next to the Career Center. Meanwhile, the administrators in charge of house three (whose color is orange) are Ramón Camacho and Jessica Lange; the office can be found in Memorial Square, by the Little Theater and the 200’s wing.

As a result of the change in the house system, counseling services for students have also been changed. Students are still assigned a counselor alphabetically, but there are specific counselors for each house as opposed to each grade. House one counselors are Regina Irvin, Jaime Huertas, and Renee Dutra. The counselors for house two are Barbara Alexander, Satinder Samra, and Monica Montes. Meanwhile, house three – which is also responsible for all Puente students – provides counseling from Erika Luna, Leslie Felipe, and Josie Alvite.

Additionally, future Logan students whose siblings attended Logan beginning this school year will be assigned the same house as their sibling.

Although the house system has existed for a long period of time, four houses existed in recent years, separating students by grade. However, Logan’s summer Excel Newsletter stated that they reorganized the house system in order to better get to know students and give them personalized attention.

Meanwhile, the recently built house nine office remains unoccupied.

This new system is accompanied by a variety of reactions from the students that it affects.

“One notable problem I have is that the counselor is considered someone who is supposed to work with and be knowledgeable about their individual students, dealing with them through the high school and college application processes,” said Kelsey Glenn, a junior. “With the sudden shift, students stuck in the middle lose the ability to interact with the same person over the course of their schooldays.



Senior Harman Behniwal said he agrees: “As far I'm concerned, the planning that I did with my old counselor became a waste.”

However, Eshaan Kashyap, a senior, said he believes that the problem of interaction with counselors is actually solved by the new house system.

“I appreciate the change because it fixes the problem of the old system,” said Kashyap. “The new system intends to keep students with their counselors instead of switching every year. It makes it easier for students to keep in touch with counselors over the course of years. Plus, all the counselors split up the task of college applications, which was originally designated for senior counselors only. With the work split up evenly, there is more time for other students to talk to counselors and receive needed attention.”

There are different reactions about the actual organizations of the new houses as well.

Glenn continued: “I don’t like it in that it’s random,” he said. “They grouped more students in the same house, albeit into more counselors and principals.”

Meanwhile, senior Daisy Ambriz is of a different opinion.

“The house offices seem more organized with their own counselors, secretaries, and – most importantly – house principals. They’re well-distributed,” she said. “And it seems like this year, schedule changes are happening really fast. Students seem satisfied.”

Senior Jasmine Garcia said she seconds the idea that the new house offices are more organized.

“I like it a whole lot better. It’s way more efficient than doing freshmen families and whatnot,” she said. “It also makes it feel like less of a hassle to want to visit your counselor, especially for seniors. If anyone should have a positive relationship with the people in the house offices, it’s the seniors.”



Diana Mabuyo, a sophomore, said she believes that the administration has good intentions, although more improvements could be made.

“I think it’s more organized and way better – when there were houses 9-12, it seemed more difficult for students, so now that we have three houses near each other, it’ll be easier for both students and parents to find,” she said. “But I wish it wasn’t so busy all the time. Hopefully it’ll change soon, plus it’s the beginning of the year so it’s understandable. Also, I think there should be more workers or student helpers.”

Some students simply want to know the method under which students are separated into their houses.

“I don't understand why there needs to be a new house system,” said junior Sean Zhu. “It's unclear why the administration chose to (seemingly) randomly assign students to houses instead of assigning them by grades. If would be nice if the students are informed of the reason behind the change.”

In the midst of all the changes taking place, junior Jimmy Yin said he just wants to know what is going on.

“They need to make up their minds. All of this change only serves to confuse us, and we’re very easily confused.”