Youth Sync: Mobile Makeover Update

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Mobile Makeover update

15 mobile classrooms on Northwest High School’s campus have been adopted for renovations this summer, leaving nine still in need of sponsors

Photos by Patti Stokes/NWO

by PATTI STOKES

Northwest High School’s PTSO hosted an open house Jan. 29 for community members and leaders to tour the 24 mobile classrooms occupying the school’s campus for over two decades. Through its “Mobile Makeover” project, the PTSO is seeking the community’s support in “adopting” the classrooms for long overdue renovation and repairs.

Despite some snow the night before the open house, about 100 people came to the school’s campus the following morning for a look inside the classrooms. Most were surprised at their condition.

Besides the need for new roofs, gutters, decking and step replacement on the exterior of the classroom units, worn, dirty carpet, sagging yellowed blinds and dented wooden bookshelves are common to most of the classrooms. And then there is the mold on several of the bathroom ceilings.

One mobile classroom has had no heat for the last few weeks, the heating unit apparently damaged in a mid-January ice storm. NWHS senior Jasmine Gee said she attends class in that mobile unit every day.

“The teacher had to bring in multiple space heaters,” Gee said. “She tries to space them out – there are three – and it’s either really warm if you’re next to it or chilly if you’re further away from it.”

The mobile unit’s bathroom can also be “gross” sometimes, Gee said. And for certain bathroom needs, she said students just get a pass and go into the main building.

Gee pointed out that all history and social studies classes are taught in mobile units, and since every student at the high school must take four history classes, they’re well used. She’ll soon be graduating and won’t personally benefit from the renovations, but she said she’s excited that thanks to the PTSO’s efforts, her younger brother will.

Greg Shue, who has taught history in a mobile classroom since he started teaching at NWHS in 1999, was at the open house on Jan. 29.

“They have aged, as anything would over 20 years of being exposed to the elements and having 150 kids in them each year,” Shue said of the mobile units when speaking with the Northwest Observer. “The maintenance of them needs a lot of work, so we’re grateful for this (Mobile Makeover project) to bring things up to a better standard.”

Shue confirmed the needs in the mobile classrooms are many and include new roofs (“most of them leak or have leaked,” he said); new subflooring; new carpet or other floor covering; repair of stairs and decking leading to the exterior classroom doors; interior ceiling repair and exterior wall repair.

“They show their age and insufficient maintenance over the years, and again, we’re just grateful to bring things back up to standard,” he said.

Some who came to the open house have committed to adopting a mobile classroom for renovation, others were parents, a few were town council members, and two were candidates for county commissioner.

Of those running for office, Stallings said, “I wish them all well in their campaign and hope whoever wins keeps our school in mind, especially now that they’ve seen it up close and in person.”

Melissa Stallings (left), Northwest High School’s PTSO president, talks with Philip Cooke of JP Monroe LLC and his wife, Julie, at the PTSO’s Jan. 29 open house for the Mobile Makeover project. JP Monroe is one of 15 business and nonprofi t sponsors that have agreed to “adopt” a mobile classroom for renovation this summer. (Above) Many of Northwest High School’s mobile classrooms have mold on the bathroom ceilings.

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