Needed: “Lockers for our books”

I chose to take this photo because normally one might expect to see a set of textbooks stacked underneath the desks. But at my school, there’s usually just an empty space. Since our school is somewhat small, the students don’t have lockers, so many students choose not to bring their books at all. With multiple classes, carrying all of your textbooks around can get tiring. Also, without a place to keep them, the books are easily damaged or simply lost, which results in a fine. Lockers for our books or having a classroom set of books would be greatly appreciated!

~ Maria Garcia, Olive Crest Academy, Coachella Unified School District (CUSD)

Library books are “old or damaged”

The picture above shows how many books are in our library, and it looks like a lot, but I’ve noticed that most of the books are either old or damaged. At times, students will want to check out a book but due to its poor quality, the book becomes unavailable. Another problem is the limited variety of books that we have. Being a huge lover of reading, I feel that many of our novels are outdated. There are times when I go in looking for a certain book and am disappointed to not find it there. Most students nowadays aren’t fans of reading, but there are still some who enjoy checking out books from the library. A new supply of books could improve student education and perhaps even lead to higher test scores, better papers, and hopefully would encourage students to read more.

~ Jocelyn Sanchez, Jordan High School, Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD)

Slow Internet makes computers “not really usable”

My school needs a few new computers. I am a sophomore at Arvin High School and I feel that my school needs improvement in the area of technology. Not only is my school equipped with outdated computers but it is also hard to gain access to them. Most of our computers are so slow that they are not really usable. When we do get a chance to get on a computer, we spend most of our time starting them or resetting passwords. And when we are finally in, it can be hard to navigate the Internet because the computer is slow. To use a computer we need permission from a teacher, or we must go as a group with our class. Getting permission from a teacher can be quite hard because they don’t want to be liable if anything happens to the computer. Some teachers are nice enough to let us use a computer, but most are not. I feel that the quality of my education and my classmates is being impacted by the lack of access to well equipped computers, because many students don’t have access to the internet or a computer at home and may have a hard time completing assignments.

~ Ivonne Bruno, Arvin High School, Kern High School District (KHSD)

“More computers” needed to meet student demand

What my school needs is more computers. Some have signs that say, “Out of Service” – we need maintenance to fix these computers or have them updated with new ones so that students can use them for homework projects. And even the ones we have are not enough for the number of students (approximately 2,300 who come from Arvin, Lamont, Weedpatch and Bakersfield). For example, my English class only has 3 computers and there are about 40 students. During nutrition and lunch the room gets full and it’s difficult to get anything done, and it gets even worse during finals. Our library is big but there is little in the way of computers, so it’s not a great place to study. Besides the computers, we need more lockers. Our school only provides lockers for certain students, which isn’t fair to other students who are trying hard. From my point of view, Arvin High School needs so much to be done.

~ Aurora Cervantes, Arvin High School, Kern High School District (KHSD)

Tags: LCFF, schools, spotlight