Response to Town Meeting Renovation Ideas

If only money grew on trees. But even then, we might still have problems. _{One of the greatest issues within both our school district, and our nation, is funding. No one ever seems to have enough money to do what they feel is necessary. However, as one of the best ranked high schools in the nation, there are definitely things that I see necessary to create a better learning environment within Deerfield High School. Not to sound what some would call “North Shore” but it is extremely distracting when I am trying to focus on a topic we are learning about in class, but all I can focus on is that it is way too hot, or freezing cold within a class room. Take our issues class. At the beginning of winter, there was a day when I walked into Issues first period, but instead I felt as though I was walking into an igloo. Though I tried to focus on the topics we were discussing in class, all I could really focus on was how freezing cold I was, and how I felt like my goose bumps were never going to go away. Now, I may be exaggerating a bit, but I am not exaggerating when I say that there were multiple times when our class stopped, and just discussed how cold it was in that room. However, that is not the only issue. As a top ranked school within the nation, in a neighborhood as wealthy as Deerfield, you would not expect our school to look the way it does. IT IS NOT A BAD SCHOOL by any means, but for our neighborhood, you’d think that they would be able to fix the windows. There are certain things that I would support that were suggested within the renovation meeting. Fixing the} roofing, windows, masonry walls, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, technology, etc. are all things that I would strongly support. In addition, I think it would be helpful to have small group study rooms. The library is great, but it is hard to discuss topics with four people to a table and a whisper. The blocks and the union are also great places, but they are more social places, which is distracting to anyone trying to have a group study. As a participant in Deerfield soccer, I also support some of the ideas they have about a field house, and turf fielding. As a spring sport, we not only deal with rain, but with bad fielding. By spring the fields are torn up, muddy, and soggy. During our spring season, there were games when the greatest struggle was our home field. There were holes everywhere, patches of grass missing, or piles of mud. It made it so much harder to even play a smooth game. The back fields, and the back forty, are constantly flooded when it rains which also makes it extremely challenging to get the things done that we want to in practice. Having a turf field would be extremely beneficial to our season. Furthermore, I believe that having a new field house can be extremely beneficial. During our off season, we have work outs three days a week. Every spring sport is preparing for their season. In essence, we are all trying to use the same small hallways and spaces throughout the school. During our running, our greatest task is trying to find a place to run because there is baseball upstairs and volleyball in E hall, and track on the other side of X hall. A field house would allow for a much smoother, and less conflicted practice space for all of these sports. Though these things do not necessarily seem like important issues, they really are constant challenges. We can continue to put these improvements off, or we can choose to raise our taxes, and make these changes happen. Either way, one side will struggle, because there is no such thing as money that grows on trees.