Opinion CORNELIUS’ CORNER
Update hallways around gymnasium Deegan Cornelius staff writer If a student has spent any time in the gymnasium, the locker rooms, the weights room, they may have noticed the halls are outdated compared to the rest of the school. These halls seem forgotten because only a few classes happen there. To start, the clocks on the way to McClain Hall stay stuck at 12:00 and need to be fixed, so they can represent an accurate time. This would help students and staff stay on schedule as they leave classes or lunch and improve the overall look of the school. The lights need to improve in the hallways by McClain Hall. Not having sufficient lighting can make the place feel more dark and gloomy and makes the school look less professional. When the lighting goes dark or off in a classroom, it can make students feel tired or sleepy — and the same goes for our hallways. The trims on the wall become a point to focus on, and the trim in the gym/locker room hallways appears as falling apart, crumbling, cracking, denting, and smudging. The trim can change the whole demeanor and impact how professional our school looks. Lockers in the hallway have aged beyond their prime. Either remove the lockers entirely or repaint them. The lockers have dents and scratches and make the halls look old and beaten. Few students use lockers anymore, so removing the lockers should happen. Students who do have a locker have many more lockers to choose from in the main hallways. If choosing to keep the lockers, then repaint the lockers. By painting the lockers, no one has to move lockers, and it will add a pop of color to the hallway which can brighten to tone.
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Opinion
Improve area around McClain Hall Staff editorial As students, we sometimes wonder where the school’s money goes. Where do the taxpayer dollars go for projects and improvements? Over the summer, the hallways of our building were repainted. Brightened up others could add. While COVID-19 was the reason students did eLearning through the months of MarchMay, our school took that time plus the summer to reevaluate the looks of our building. The appearance and use of it improved with the school’s money. The custodial staff and others worked on our school during the five months while students were at home. Meanwhile, the bleachers were replaced in McClain Hall. The old wooden bleachers did not have adequate handrails and were worn down. The portions of the new bleachers now can move to any location in the gymnasium and the bleachers spell out the school initials when collapsed. However, the bleachers
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did not come for free; the project cost about $125,000 to complete with $30,000 coming from the high school, $30,000 coming from the athletic department, and $68,000 coming from the district’s operations budget, according to the Scott County School Board of Education minutes from Feb. 24. Now that we have put money into our hallways and bleachers, we could focus on other parts of our building. A good use of that money could be putting it towards McClain Hall. Here’s why: Volleyball and wrestling meets there, hosting games and tournaments. Graduation brings most of the county together in McClain Hall. The gymnasium hosts band, choir, color guard, and theatre performances. Driver’s education spends time in a classroom in that portion of the building. Bottom line: Many visitors come through McClain Hall and out in the hallways and spaces around the gym. People pay attention
to how the place looks and judge our school and our people by what they see. Not to mention that compared to all the other places in the school, the hallways, the classrooms, the clocks stuck at 12:00, and the locker rooms in McClain Hall appear more outdated when one puts it side-by-side to other schools. The school mentioned purchasing a digital sign in front of our school for at least $42,000 during the June 22 Board of Education meeting, and the Board decided not to make the purchase. But if they did, we could put that amount of money toward improving our school, such as a sports facility, improving the areas around McClain Hall, or upgrading outdated classrooms. As a staff, we have all agreed that our biggest focus was on improving the area around McClain Hall. Once that is dealt with, a sports facility — more gym space or a pool for our swim team — mentioned in this issue should be seriously considered.
School needs another facility for growing programs Catherine Valencia staff writer With even more student-athletes added each year from elementary to high school, Scottsburg High School and Scott County School District 2 could use another sports facility. Since the start of COVID-19, schools and other area gymnasiums do not want to share their facilities. Even though other schools and organizations do not wish to share their facilities for valid health reasons, the action makes it unfortunate for SHS and Scott 2 because we do not have enough room for all sports to play or practice. Elementary travel sports teams practice at the high school and at Meyer Gym because their gymnasiums do
Nov. 2020, Issue 2
not have a central location, enough space, or being used for cafeteria space. With COVID-19, people have to social distance more than ever. Gymnasium space district wide was turned into cafeteria space to comply with health department procedures. In the past, SHS could work around the gymnasium area and make space. Now, students have to make sure that everyone socially distances, especially if people from a different team stand nearby. The new restrictions in space and in health make it harder to practice and play successfully in a timely manner. For example, sometimes sports teams that take place out-
doors need a place to practice indoors if the weather turns to rain, snow, high winds, or thunder and lightning. Inside, no room exists if a team was already practicing in the gymnasium. A larger, new sports facility would help for situations like these. Sports teams would not lose practice time and would not have to have the worry about not being able to practice. With the right amount of money put into this, a sports facility could last several years. Just as any other place it would need a consistent amount of time, money, and energy put into it but it would benefit everyone for years to come.
