On Mar. 7 students as well as parents gathered at Carver Education Center to testify on the Board of Education’s capital improvement plan of pushing back renovation of this school to 2029.
Students including SGA co-president senior Rhea Chelar, junior Madeline Eig, junior Claire Lenkin and junior Yana Kohli all gave three-minute speeches in which they gave their opinion on why the board should not push back renovations. “We wanted to convince and show the Board of Ed that our school is in desperate need of renovation and how much our outdated building conflicts with our learning on a daily basis,” Kohli said.
The students testified in front of members of the Board of Education, which included Karla Silvestre, Julie Yang and Rebecca Smondrowski. The members of the Board of Education were also joined by interim superintendent Dr. Monique Felder. Each student who spoke at the meeting expressed their concern for the current condition and state of the school. The main talking points were the 215 priority one ADA violations the school currently has, as well as the basic infrastructure of the school. “I think our advocacy has been working these past few years because the school is getting ADA improvements this summer,” junior Emma Yuan said.
The school was built in 1970 and is currently the only high school in the county to not be renovated. An initial renovation was planned to be done by the 2021 school year with construction starting in 2016. However over the course of the years, these plans have been pushed back. “It has been super challenging because our community has been pushing for the past decades, and yet we keep getting delayed and delayed and the idea that we may be canceled or delayed even further is alarming and disappointing,” Yuan said.
While most of the testimonies came from students, parents as well as staff were also present and gave their input on why the school’s renovation is needed. The Board heard from parent Robin Dinallo, as well as Brian Rabin, who is the school PTA president. Both Dinallo and Rabin gave insight into the issues students face daily in the school. Dinallo pointed out how students breathe in mold and how dangerous that could be for kids to experience on a daily basis. “We went to advocate by sharing stories of failing infrastructure to highlight why the students who come need a new building,” Eig said.
Students who testified were shown support by several other SGA members as well as students from the school. Principal Douglas Nelson was also in attendance at the meeting. When a student stood up to testify, supporters for the school and students stood up holding signs to show their support for the speakers. “I think we did the best we could and all the students and staff who showed up proved to the Board of Education how passionate we are about our school being renovated,” Kohli said.
The meeting ended with the Board of Education failing to give an exact date for the decision to be made. The Board has been in contact with the County Council and has discussed the issues students brought up. County Council members will be coming to tour the school and then listen to more testimonies before they announce a final decision about the renovation.
