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Stanford lecturer headlines counseling panel
Proposed changes to Gunn counseling program is topic of Wednesday event

Denise Clark Pope, a Stanford University senior lecturer, will be the featured panelist in a discussion of Gunn High School's guidance counseling program Wednesday, May 16.

Pope is a cofounder of the Stanford-based Challenge Success organization, which aims to "improve student health and engagement with learning." The group's anti-stress conferences in recent years have filled Stanford's 1,750-seat Memorial Auditorium with interested parents and school teams from throughout the country.

Wednesday's event will include a panel discussion focused on Gunn's counseling program, which currently is under review by an internal school working group, with recommendations for change anticipated in March 2013.

The sponsor of the panel discussion is the parent-led group We Can Do Better Palo Alto. For more than a year, We Can Do Better has urged the Board of Education to have Gunn shift from a traditional counseling system and adopt the "teacher-adviser" counseling model used at Palo Alto High School.

The event will begin at 7 p.m. at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 600 Colorado Ave. in Palo Alto. It will be videotaped and the recording posted on www.PaloAltoOnline.com.

— Palo Alto Weekly staff