Neverending Construction at Palisade

As most of you know, there has been ongoing construction at Palisade since before this school year started. The main areas of construction include the corridor to the West Building, the gym, and the auditorium. To give the school some credit they were able to get new ceiling panels and sprinklers for the entire school, even though there were some mess-ups, like in the Woodworking classroom where they didn’t move the power outlets in the ceiling to where they should be.

According to Daniel Bollinger the Principle of Palisade High School, this was to bring the buildings up to code. He also stated, “They’re going to have three different gates that you can go out of but can’t come in. So you can’t park out in the bus circle and get through if you’re a stranger. You have to come through the main entrance.” Construction is something that you encounter every day at school, so our team decided to interview two students about it. Sophomore Wesley Reimer was asked about how he feels about the construction he’d “ I would say I’m pretty neutral. I don’t think the construction is bad, but I don’t think it has any real benefits either.” Reimer admits, “ I would say that if you’re not gonna get the construction done within the time allotted and it’s going to go into the school year, then I would say that no, it’s not worth the time and resources.” This is just one student’s opinion of what’s going on, so we decided to interview Sophomore Corban Odneal. Odneal states that “It’s pretty loud. In most classes, you can hear the jittering, and the vibrations from it. It’s pretty loud and it can be disrupting sometimes, but in all, it’s not terrible, and I understand they’re just trying to do their job.” When both students are asked if they know what the construction is for, their answers are “No”. Odneal says, “I honestly do not. I don’t know what they’re doing. I know, there’s a wall being built by the gym over there. I’m not even sure what they’re doing by the bus loop, maybe pipe work?” Reimer said when asked this question “No, I do not know what the construction is for.”

It may surprise all that the construction is actually to build a wall between the outdoor gym and the gym, a wall from the West building to the main building by the bus stop, and to put sprinklers into the auditorium, as stated by Mr. Bollinger.  While construction is a necessary part of improving Palisade, the lack of communication has left most students wondering what is actually happening. Without communication, it is difficult for students and teachers to navigate the disruptions. Hopefully, once the construction is finished, the communication will improve, and the new improvements will benefit everyone here at Palisade.