As the new school year begins, Arlington High School introduces not only a new principal, a new disciplinary regime, but an extension–including renovations, remodels, and brand new classrooms–to the C-wing. 

“It’s new, so that’s nice… I got all brand new furniture, tables and chairs… I can’t complain about a brand new classroom…”, English teacher Brooke Adcock said. 

Most other teachers with new classrooms agree. Like Adcock, freshman science teacher Josh Perrigo got a new room. 

“It’s a really nice room setup… it has lots of space… Lots of sinks around the room, I have a storage area that’s attached to it… It’ll be really nice when it’s all finished…” he said. 

A couple other teachers who were fortunate enough to get new classrooms seemed to agree. 

“Our students love our new space…”, said para-educator for Arlington’s Life Skills program, “…Within our new space we have created a sensory room that students have spent time utilizing each day.”

Of course, nothing is without its flaws, especially when it’s brand new. 

According to Adcock, “…it’s a long way from everything else… that’s what [the students] complain about… walking here…” 

Other than slight design flaws, there are some issues in the new classrooms that can be fixed.  

“The heating and cooling seem to be a little wonky, it’s either really hot or really cold. The lights flicker, so we make fun of the classroom, we say it’s haunted. The intercom was broken so we had a helicopter sound all day… [The WiFi is] worse… The stuff that they have ordered for the new wing is not scheduled to be shipped until February,” Adcock said. 

 These issues cannot be overlooked, as they obviously disrupt the flow of learning. However, the growth of Arlington has created a necessity for physical accommodations in the school building, despite the technical complications in some of the new classrooms.

 “[The remodel was] a hundred percent necessary… The rate that we are growing, we physically would not have had room to keep kids in the classroom safely…” says Rob Hollis, the Engineering and Robotics teacher here at Arlington, “we can expect to see [the new classrooms] filling up soon.”