On Monday, Jan. 10, students and teachers came back to school after the weekend. Most expected a return to their normal schedule. One teacher who expected to go back to her regular schedule was English teacher Amy Martin. This expectation was short lived; however, when she arrived at her room. 

“There was a quarter inch of water over the majority of the back-half of my room,” Martin said. “Because of the water on the floor, all the floor tiles lifted, and they were sliding up overtop of one another, and it was just unsafe.”

Martin’s community service worker, Dillan Dantos, was another witness.

“Water was leaking through the roofing, and then eventually, one day, her classroom flooded over the weekend. There was a half inch of water on the floor, and the tiles started coming up,” Dantos said.

Martin had experienced other issues before this date. 

“My floor tiles were starting to lift before any of this,” Martin said. “[They] just squiggled in place a little bit. I came back after winter break, and the one tile nearest to the door was in a cone shape and the garbage can was under it and there was rust marks on the floor around the garbage can.” 

Junior Eli Costanzo also remembers the cone shaped ceiling tile.

“There was a tile that was a little bit wet. And it was starting to be a little bit drippy and soggy and started to hang a little bit,” Costanzo said.

Other damage has been reported.

“We have water on the third floor, a lot of water on the third floor,” Martin said. “We’ve had water in Mrs. Fuller’s room in the fall, she had quite a bit, and it ran down her ViewSonic board. Then we had a small stream of water in Ms. Deshong’s storage room for all her chemistry stuff. And then we had quite a bit of water in the fall in the hallway, which is why most of the ceiling tiles are out in the upstairs towards where my room is. The roof needs replaced, and it hasn’t been done yet.”  

While repairs are made, Martin and her students have moved to a conference room on the first floor of the A building.

“We absolutely love the tables instead of student desks, and the rolling chairs are quite popular,” Martin said. “But it’s been really nice, because of the size of the tables, to be able to have students work in small groups again, because there’s so much space between them with the size of the table, as opposed to trying to put four student desks together; you’re really quite close then. The natural light is also really nice, except first period is blinded by the sun. Anybody who sits facing the outside is very awake when they leave.”

Costanzo is also excited for the new room for a number of reasons.

“My homeroom is on the first floor of the B-building, with Mr. Blough, and the benefit is that I get to come down here now; it makes my life so much easier,” Costanzo said. “And we are a decent fan of having a big, open glass room. So this actually helps a little bit, display and brings a little more color than a simple, bland classroom. It adds a little bit more character, which gives us a little bit more of a happy bonus in a day. It makes you feel like you’re more available and able to move out, instead of very cluttered and claustrophobic, so it adds that benefit.”

While Martin expressed her excitement to be in a new environment, she would still prefer to be in her old room.

“I don’t mind the space, but I miss having my desk because I just have a small table in there and I use my whole desk. I need an extra desk with my desk,” Martin said. “One thing I do miss… I have a whiteboard on my back wall that runs the width of my wall in my old room, and I have it broken in sections, so at the beginning of the week I’d list what each class is doing for the whole week, and I don’t have that kind of space in this one to do it. It keeps me on track, but if someone is absent they can just ask if it’s on Google Classroom. And long term, I would miss being able to make the space my own, and personalize it, because I have a lot of stuff, artwork and things up in my classroom because I’m here all day, everyday. It needs to be less gray.”

Dantos promotes the layout of the old room.

“I definitely prefer the old room, because we had all the books,” Dantos said. “I could check kids into the iPad and make sure they have their books. Now there’s just books on the floor of our room in a little box. And we don’t have any books really on display anymore; it doesn’t feel like an English classroom.”

When Martin was told to leave the classroom, she prepared resources. 

“I’ve been through a lot of remodeling, so when they told me I’d be back in my room in two weeks, I knew better just from the state of every good intention that remodeling doesn’t work in your favor. I packed up enough things to last me to the end of this marking period, so I’m good. As long as I get back before the fourth marking period starts I’ll be fine,” Martin said. 

Dantos’ community service work has changed since the move.

“I now come over here, but I don’t do as much for the entire English department anymore,” Dantos said. “I was more accessible to them over there because everybody is based over there. But now I kind of have to stick over here. I’m able to help other new teachers over here, but I can’t help my English department teachers as much.”

Dantos is also looking forward to completing a huge task for Martin.

“We’ve had to move the entire classroom to this new building, and we had over 2,500 books on bookshelves that we had to move,” Dantos said. “So we just boxed them up, so for the rest of the year, once we get back into the room, I’m going to be organizing that so it’s going to be a big struggle to get back to normal with all those books.”

Martin is grateful for all the support other teachers and students have given her.

“Everybody was really helpful, and everybody was so kind near me in the other room. Once they learned of my displacement and why I was there, they were so kind,” Martin said. “They showed me where the copiers were in that building and just things I didn’t know. I have to give a shoutout to my community service worker, Dillan Dantos. He saved my life. If I had to independently pack up everything in my room, I don’t think I’d ever be out of there. He was such a big help.”