Facility Frustrations Some voice their concerns about cleanliness on campus

By Anthony Nguyen

Sophomore

Rhylee Inducta is frustrated by the bathrooms at AHS. He feels like almost every time he has to use one, there is some issue.

“I feel like they could be better, because every now and then I would go to the bathroom, and there would be no paper towels, so I can’t dry my hands, so I would have to shake it off, making my phone wet and some papers wet” Inducta said

Sophomore Javier Nunez has observed the same. He pointed out that paper towels in particular seem to always be missing.

“It annoys me because then I have to use my sleeves or something else to dry my hands, but since there are no towels, my hands would get cold as well.” Nunez said

The complaints from Inducta and Nunez are not uncommon. Students, and staff, across campus have voiced frustration this year with the facilities on campus. Whether it be the bathrooms, the heaters, or general cleanliness, some feel like things have gotten worse in this past school year.

Principal Angela Webster first started working at AHS in 2017 as an assistant principal, She said that the problems students and staff are commenting on now have been around since her first stint at AHS.

“When I was back here in 2017 as assistant principal, I saw similar things. I wouldn’t say it’s worse, but I see it as an ongoing problem, but similar to the last couple of years when I was here before.” Webster said.

The causes of the facilities issues are also varied. Some, like heaters, are mechanical issues. But some, like the resources in the bathroom might be attributed to vandalism and other behavior largely by students. Nunez believes that the bathroom cleanliness issue in particular has to do with student behavior in the restrooms and staff enforcement of school rules.

“The school doesn’t really enforce that many rules to clean up, and plus they make it so easy to have people throw away trash on the floor and litter.” Nunez said

Webster noted that, regardless of the causes of these facilities issues there is a significant need for upgrades and repairs across our campus.

“There definitely needs to be repairs. I know the district is in a remodernization stage where they’re focused on different school sites right now. I know this is a very old building, very old school, and it can be very expensive to repair some of the things on campus. I would love to have a brand new bathroom, brand new building and a brand new school, but that’s my opinion.” Principal Angela Webster.

She added that she has reached out to the district office for repairs, but response times have varied.

“Yes, I have been emailed by teachers, and when they email me i put in the work order, and we have our secretaries put in the work orders, which goes to the district maintenance and operations department, and then they find someone to come fix it.” Webster said.

Ms. Webster would then credit our custodians with the work they are doing this year, in spite of all the challenges we are facing.

All of our messes here in Arroyo are cleaned up by our custodians, so it should not be their fault as sometimes the students would blame our custodians for the lack of maintenance, but really our custodians try our hardest to keep our school clean as they have to clean the entire school almost everyday, She went on to add that more can be done to ensure that our campus stays clean

“ I think our custodians get frustrated when students don’t clean up their mess, I think if we start now, making students aware about the cleanliness of our campus, beautification projects as well as just having that conversation and bringing it up. We don’t wanna blame our custodians, and we don’t wanna put the extra work on our custodians. We’re short on staff as well, so I think it’s up to the students to support, and educate with assisting to keep our campus clean. So in the springtime do I think it’s going to get dirtier? I think that if we start now with the conversation, no. I think that if we make students aware that sometimes they’re walking through the hallways and not aware, I think we will see a change.” said Webster.

Looking forward, Webster said she would be open to more efforts to encourage all of our campus community members to keep our campus more clean.

“Yea i think a cleanup campaign or doing a rally would definitely educate our students about keeping our school clean, I think it takes the entire campus to work together. I think the student voice makes a big difference if we all work together, and we can talk to our whole entire community about keeping our campus clean.”