What’s new in the new school year?
The new school year at Lakewood High starts off with a look at advances in the school renovation project as well as new security measures.
By MALKOLM BELFOR
SNN Staff Writer
There was something new for everyone arriving at Lakewood on Aug. 13, including some long-awaited advances in the school’s ongoing construction and new security measures that everyone must learn and adapt to.
Over the summer, construction to the campus continued. By the time school started again, changes had been made to the front entrance, front office, auditorium, gym and middle courtyard.
Lakewood principal Erin Savage said the closest thing to being completed is the front office, which she estimated to be 95-percent done. She said she was also told the auditorium will be completed in early October and the middle courtyard and gym will be done by the end of the year.
The school’s front entrance and front office were repainted. In addition to a new paint job, the front office also got new security doors and security glass. The auditorium is getting a new sound system and the lobby is being remodeled. The gym floor is being redone, new bleachers and windows will be put in, the bathrooms will be relocated to the opposite side of the gym and a lobby and concession stand will be put in its original place. The middle courtyard will have plants added and a glass ceiling above it all.
“Construction should be done by mid-December,” construction worker Alex Hernandez said.
But Savage is not as hopeful. She thinks it may not be done until 2019.
“The only reason I’m saying that is because we’re still in hurricane season, so things may happen,” Savage said. “Things get delayed so I’m thinking maybe January or February.”
Students say they are annoyed by the construction, mostly because of the alternate routes they must take to get to their classes and lunch.
“We can’t go certain places. We have to walk all the way around to go to lunch and we don’t get the whole campus,” sophomore Jonathan Williams said.
But the students also agreed that the result will be worth it.
“I think it’s a good thing because, later in the future, we’ll see the finished product and it’ll be a better school,” senior Jalen Dixon said.
Other than construction there have also been a handful of new changes to security to make the campus safer.
“Aside from providing good instruction for our students, our main goal is a safe and secure learning environment, so we have made some changes,” Savage said.
Other changes that have been implimented are having everyone enter through the front entrance, having classroom doors and other doors around campus locked and making all students wear hall passes. If students let somebody in through one of the unprohibited entrances, or they are in the hallway without a pass, they will have to serve a three-hour detention, school resource officer Lerric Boyd said.
The school also has an additional resource officer, Edwardo Rivera. Rivera has been with the St. Petersburg Police Department for about 10 years but is new to working in a school.
“The biggest difference for me (becoming an SRO) is being on more of a one-on-one basis with the students here at the high school,” Rivera said.
Rivera and Boyd conducted an active assailant drill for the staff at Lakewood during their pre-school summer training. Teachers said they found the training helpful and thorough.
“I think it’s a sad reality that teachers and students have to go through this training, but I think it’s the world that we live, and we have to be prepared so I’m glad that they had it for us,” English teacher Kate Drof said.