The teachers in the math wing who were scheduled to move to the first floor during Thanksgiving break have moved earlier.

The teachers reacted with mixed emotions. “One problem with moving to the first floor hallway is that only one classroom here has a whiteboard,” math teacher Laura Neri said, adding that the blackboards are “not good” for math lessons. But the move “in some ways is convenient because it’s closer to the main office, but farther from the math office.”

Other teachers questioned the need for the construction in the math wing. “Four out of the six rooms in the math wing are already very wheelchair-accessible and they are actually making my door three to four inches smaller than before,” math teacher David Hunt said. “Why all the disruption and expenditure for something that was already there before?”

Construction, which started in June, is scheduled to continue until August of next year. The project is split into four phases, with the second phase subdivided into three parts. The math wing’s move to the first floor hallway is part of the second phase, and many more rotations are planned. “There will be a series of rotations of classrooms so all parts of the school can be renovated,” assistant principal of curriculum Mary Streshly said.

Even if the math wing is completed ahead of schedule, the administration said they felt it was unnecessary to continue onto the next phase immediately. The next phase, planned for around the end of the first semester, involves moving the second floor world language teachers down to the first, replacing the math teachers who return to the newly renovated math wing. “The construction company asked us if we wanted to move up our phases to a sooner date, but we decided against it,” Mary Streshly said. “We don’t want to interfere with any of the teachers’ academic schedules.”

Math teacher Jeremy Gribler, however, expressed indifference towards an accelerated construction, believing it would not interfere with the teachers’ academic plans. “They’re going to change the door and the cupboard, which is nothing,” he said. He also expressed that this time of construction should be used to improve the overall condition of the classrooms. “It would be nice for them to renovate my classroom because the roof is water-damaged.”

Many students were unimpressed with the changes in the first floor hallway. “It’s pretty much the same,” sophomore Ruby Lam said. “But it’s missing the bulletin boards.”

Others, however, did notice a positive change in the hallway. “They repainted the walls, and it looks better,” senior Chasel Lee said.

Locker problems arose in the beginning of the year when the first floor hallway was closed off. This issue led to as many as four students assigned to one single locker. Unfortunately, all locker problems will not be solved immediately.

“Seniors are our first priority,” Dean Ray Cordoba said. “We will make reassignments for people who had lockers in the math wing, but other than that, seniors come first.”

Assistant principal of buildings and grounds Janeé Montelongo is very confident in the construction project, and hopes that teachers and students alike are transitioning smoothly with the changes. “I don’t get feedback when things are positive,” she said. “I only get feedback when things are negative, and since I’m not getting any feedback, I assume things are going well.”