Years Of Campus Construction Come To An End

By Justin Milton 

Returning from Winter Break, students were welcomed to new classrooms and parking space. 3 years of part-by-part construction at last came to an end, leaving the entire campus open. Many teachers relocated to the newly available rooms, with the library finally returning to its old spot in the 400 building. The parking situation has improved as there is now more room and 2 entrances, instead of all traffic competing to get through the first entrance. 

When interviewed by Claire Wilson and Angus McNellie for Plundercast, Mrs. Brinkman was overall happy with her new room. She likes having the bulletin board walls and feels the room is “more quaint.” However, she noticed that the cabinets were off-color. Mrs. Cherry has the same cabinets, and also noticed 2 ceiling tiles with water spots in her room that were later removed. Those were two of some minor contract issues. The school vibe is overall positive, and students appreciate having more space and not having to park and walk all the way across campus.

Because the senior parking lot is now open, timing to leave the first entrance has gone from an average of 15 min to around 5. At the second entrance, Auto can finally get cars through after only working on the cars already there. Students also have more immediate access to and from the J wing and newly opened classrooms. Although it is fair to say the situation has overall improved, there are still frustrations. At the second entrance, there have been problems due to the need for community parking and how fast the other spots fill up. Students are often frustrated and tempted when not allowed to use the community parking space immediately in front of the pool that tends to be empty in the morning. Often students end up parking on the road or even go back to the first lot.

On Tuesday, January 30th, Student Congress met as usual to discuss school related things. The main issue brought up in the meeting was parking. Principal Schalde discussed the dilemma with the second lot and how to fix it. Students largely voiced support for it to be a senior-only lot, which was done in the back last year but this can be controversial. Some, including Schalde, leaned towards further dividing it between seniors, community and everyone else, and he made it clear the community space was a public contract that was already given less room than originally settled on. As a note, most people who spoke were seniors. What was clear though is that no one wanted it to stay the way it was.

With the second semester in action, people are benefiting with better access to the school and more classrooms. As always, there are issues that arise and need to be addressed. However, things are going in the right direction and administrators are looking in to solutions to further improve on these improvements.