Over the summer break, our school has made severe changes to its interior (and structural integrity) for the wellbeing of the school and its students. But it’s also erasing school history as it goes. Being built in 1933 with the first graduating class in 1935, Hawthorne High School has served its community with pride. Recently, however, the same halls the graduates of 1935 walked are now changing. 

This summer saw the removal of several portions of lockers from the main hall of the school, all of them being original to the school. We also saw the installation of new drop ceilings in the 1970 portion of the building. Both of these changes are purely cosmetic and (in my opinion) had no reason to change. Were the lockers unusable? Yes. Was the ceiling old? You could say that, yes. But does anyone use their lockers anymore? Were there new lockers installed? No, and no. Did anything break the drop ceiling? Was there a reason to change it? No. These changes are unnecessary for our school, and the money being spent could go to things that actually need to be attended to. Like supplies for teachers, air conditioners, bathrooms, etc. Our school is spending money on aesthetics when it could be used to fix up some other areas, even staff designated spaces. 

One example would be the faculty bathrooms on the 3rd floor. The women’s bathroom is (somewhat) operational, but what about the mens room? Paper storage. Male teachers are forced to use the one “staff” bathroom (the one across the main cafeteria with a note taped to the door that says “staff only”, a sign that is disregarded by students) or use student bathrooms.

Or how about getting contractors that are finishing the overhaul of the library (again, an unnecessary change) before school starts so we have a library? If we left the school mostly how it was and only fixed what NEEDED to be repaired, we would’ve saved a lot of money…and in the process, we could still be  honoring our school’s legacy.