How do I get involved in SOS?

Attend an event, or a meeting, or email us at msjsos@gmail.com. Anyone can be involved in the SOS process. Come to an SOS event and speak your mind. 

When are the next meetings?

Meeting times are usually the 2nd or 3rd Monday of the month for students, board meetings are the second Tuesday after school and Health and Wellness Committee meetings are posted on the MSJHS website, in the MPPFA minutes and will be posted on MSJTalk.  

Will lowering stress at Mission lower our school performance?

It is not the goal of Mission: SOS to lower the achievement levels of Mission students. There is a difference between distress and stress. Stress results from trying to meet deadlines, improving performance, watching exciting movies, and handling unexpected events and can be productive.

Distress is a result of chronic stress. Adults and students can learn to tell the difference between stress and distress. Distress can keep us up at night, disrupt relationships, isolate us from our support networks, change eating habits, and lower achievement levels. Distress in this country and in many countries across the globe, costs billions of dollars to educational institutions and businesses in associated health care costs and lost productivity. There is no downside to reducing distress on students and community members.

Isn’t stress normal?

Stress is normal and many would say necessary, but chronic distress is not normal and is destructive over time to both health and achievement. There is anecdotal evidence and data from the student survey that points to the existence of high levels of academic distress within the Mission San Jose High School community. It is the effects of chronic distress that Mission: SOS would like to reduce.

Can we really change at Mission?

Yes, our community will continue to take baby steps over time to reduce distress for our students, staff and families. Today’s SOS leadership may not see the benefits of the work they do at Mission, although younger members of the community may reap the benefits of the work put in today. Careful change and timely assessment of interventions using a well thought out rubric will increase the effectiveness of the change process. Data based solutions are site based and, we hope, well planned and managed over time.

Individual change occurs in a single “light bulb” moment. What a speaker says, the anecdote they tell, a story offered by the student in the row behind you at an event, an incredible passage read in a book or article that you picked up; each of these moments has the potential to profoundly affect your life. Some of the best support and learning opportunities an individual can have is through a process like this one. But like any great learning opportunity, it’s only worth what we put into it; we have the opportunity to change, but it’s just that, an opportunity not a certainty.