Niles West has never been known for its timeliness, but this year has gotten off to a particularly rough start.  Between the torn down tiles on the staircases and the South Lobby construction, getting around school has been a little more difficult than usual.  Not to mention the issues with ILP, and the fact that nobody had their schedules until almost a week before school started.  Nothing has been done by the time it should have been, and at this point students are beginning to feel like nothing ever will be.

The South Lobby was meant to be finished by the first day of school.  But now it seems that the construction won’t be completed until October.  What does this mean for students?  Well, if you arrive at school on the bus it causes complications.  Students are pushed and shoved through a single side door where the new lobby should be.  One student has been heard saying that waiting in line to get into school through that single door feels like waiting for airport security.  What a lovely way to start out the school day.  Now, once the lobby is completed it will be used as another study hall, and you know how I feel about those.  The construction of the lobby also poses another problem: the hallway is almost completely blocked.

Then, of course, were the lovely technical issues this summer.  In the school newsletter, which was sent out around the middle of July, students were informed that the Individual Learning Plan site would be up by August 8th, when all students could access their schedules.  August 8th came and went, and ILP still was not up.  By August 12th, people were getting desperate.  “WE WANT OUR SCHEDULES! WE WANT THEM! WE WANT ILP TO WORK NOW,” the Student Body screamed.  But the administration simply could not deliver.  In fact, most students first saw their schedules when they opened their mailboxes on August 15th to 16th.  Sure, it was before school started, but the organization of West was what really stuck with the students.

“The Student Services Department is equally upset by the set backs.  By next year students should get their schedules by the usual time,” said Jason Ness, the assistant principal of pupil services.  We understand that the change of systems was hard, but students really value our schedules, and getting them early is important to us.  Hopefully next year everything will be fixed.

All of the construction mishap brings back memories for me.  Memories all the way back from the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year when we were told that the new gymnastic gym and tennis courts would soon be opening.  Before that we had been told that they would be opening at the beginning of the year.  Girls tennis season came and went and the players had to go without their new tennis courts.  The gymnastic and boys tennis teams still held out hope, though.  Some truly believed that they would have their new places by the time their seasons rolled around.  And both were wrong.  The gymnastics teams (who’s equipment had been moved to make room for the cardio lab) ended up spending most of their season at North.

Every summer the school comes up with some excellent idea for a summer construction project, and somehow not everything gets quite completed by the time summer is over and school is back in session.  Maybe the administration could think about starting construction before school really lets out.  Or, if that might be disruptive, just think about telling the students a more realistic date for everything to be done.  Of course, the school had a few successes this summer.  The new gym flooring is down in both the contest gym and the field house.  Also, the football stadium has lovely new bleachers.  In the future, I’m hoping that all of West’s projects can go like these did.