A meeting was held with various students and administration to inform the architect group about what students believe are the biggest issues and needs of the building so they can come up with a design for the upcoming bond issue.

Senior Cassandra Quinby was one of the students who attended the meeting and she felt it was very beneficial.

“Students and teachers are the ones that really know the building and what learning in it is like,” Quinby said. “The building is for students so it makes the most sense to ask students what it’s missing. I think it really brought forth some problems that may not have been seen.”

Some ideas that were brought up at the meeting include bigger classroom sizes, more windows, brighter colors, more areas for students to hang out in and a new parking lot.

“The points I found most important were bigger classroom sizes,” Quinby said. “We especially need bigger classes for the science labs and programs in the E-building. Other important things to me were windows for natural light, and areas for students to work and gather in.”

The architect group wanted students opinions on how to better the building as well as how they thought people could be convinced to pass the bond proposal.

“I think one way to get people to vote yes on this bond is to build a new high school,” Quinby said. “I think something I heard a lot during the last bond was that people didn’t understand we were trying to fix the old building instead of just starting new.

“Getting it to pass in the community is going to be a challenge, but educating people and asking their opinions would also be helpful. I definitely think it should pass. Hays High does incredibly well with what it has but it would be incredible to see just how much the teachers and students could do with an updated building that works for the new areas of work in the world. Students here are really being cheated out of the better education they could be having just because the building is old and doesn’t work for the students anymore.”

Quinby’s ideal school would be very eco-friendly.

“I think the ideal school would have a ton of windows and large classrooms that have plenty of room for anything teachers want to do,” Quinby said. “It would have comfortable areas for students to spend time in and have outside areas as well. I would also really like to see the programs within the school have the proper rooms and equipment to work with.”

Sophomore Mason Ibarra attended the meeting and felt the architects got a good idea of what students would like to see.

“Even if I won’t get to benefit from changes and improvements to the building, I have an open mind about it,” Ibarra said. “My ideal school would be very opening and artistic.”

A point that senior Joslyn Dinkel found important was the cramped building space and lack of natural lighting.

“I don’t know about other kids, but the design of the school gets really depressing and stressful, and it becomes difficult to concentrate,” Dinkel said. “I have a lot of opinions, but I keep them to myself unless I believe they are beneficial for other people to hear. I think about what I say before I say it, so I meant everything I said at the meeting and truly believe the building needs to be changed.

17kbrooks@usd489.com