That one sweet word we have been dying to hear: Renovations! Essentially, however, they won’t apply to most of us.

After the recent incident in the girls’ locker room, it seems unjust that everyone excluding the freshman will not get the brand new building. We, the students who have had to put up with our creaky squeaky school, will not get the new one. It seems like rumors of renovations have been going around for a while now, but things definitely should have started before the blaring evidence of an ancient school became visible.

Renovations are planned to start this summer if everything goes according to plan and will take between 3 and 3 ½ years to complete.

Here are some main points from the list of things wrong with the current building that was written up at the meetings last year:

-inadequate ventilation and lighting

-need up to date equipment in science labs

-small classrooms

-not enough PE lockers

-field house structure

-inconsistency within the building regarding technological resources

-lack of easy handicap access to different parts of the building

-wooden structures around the building are not up to code

-assembly spaces have limited accessibility (lecture hall, cafeteria, and gym)

-not enough parking

-upper levels not connected

Adding to the list the “poopapalooza” (Nat Loureiro) in the girls’ locker room, FHS students can relate to most of these issues. Emily Lavallee recalled the time “a piece of the ceiling fell onto my lunch table”. We have so many stories to tell, but we don’t get to experience a fully functional, modern building.

It is unfair that we have to put up with the school because we just happened to be born some years too late. Why weren’t these changes made sooner? Planning started in 2005 so it definitely took a while to weigh the options. Why did we wait until the school was practically falling apart? Other towns have had beautiful schools for years now.

The new building will be between the tennis courts and football field. Our building now will be knocked down and turned into fields.

“Better late than never” definitely applies here, but earlier would have been fabulous. Ah those lucky freshman!