Embedded Files
By Clara Frank
October 18, 2023
Beautifying a school campus is supposed to be an advantage for students and teachers alike. However the constant bustle of construction provides a significant distraction for students.
According to the San Luis Coastal Unified School District, Measure D was passed in 2014 with the intention of beautifying and enhancing the campuses of Morro Bay High School and San Luis Obispo High School. When the act was originally passed, the budget was set at 177 million. Although the Tribune writes that since it was passed the budget has been increased to 349 million due to inflation.
While all of this money has been put towards the construction of the new campuses, the amount of time and negative aspects of it beg the question, was this worth it? The construction has created a student disconnect from campus, it has displaced staff, and has had adverse effects on the environment surrounding the school.
Morro Bay High’s Quad before and after construction along with the current senior parking lot construction
For the majority of certain students' time at Morro Bay High School there has been a lack of common spaces for students to connect during their free time throughout the day. There is no usable library for students, and only recently has there been a cafeteria. This lack of spaces has affected the sense of community around campus. The lack of shared spaces has also raised issues when the weather is not ideal. Students had no common place to go to for years because of the construction. This combined with the emotionally stunted covid-lockdown teenagers makes for a socially divided school.
Many teachers have been shoved from room to room, hall to hall, with no regard for the productivity of their classrooms. Certain teachers have had to resort to teaching in hallways of buildings. The hallways of most buildings are used by staff to make copies, run scantrons, etc.o when teachers' classrooms are moved into hallways, the hallway activities remain. Constantly having a teacher scrambling through your classroom during their prep period is a serious distraction for students. With thin doors between classrooms and the hallway there is always noise pollution from other lessons seeping into the close confines of the hallway.
Construction always has some sort of impact on the environment, and with Morro Bay High School's proximity to the ocean, there are some serious questions to be asked. The amount of sound produced from the construction creates an immense amount of noise pollution which affects how habitable animals find any given place. The products used to construct new structures surely have chemicals in them that can runoff into the ocean and harm sea life.
While Morro Bay High School's construction was needed in order to keep the campus up to date, the consequences have been a significant burden to the school and its students. If the construction had been done in a way that prevented the numerous negative impacts, perhaps students would be better acclimated to the campus.
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