By Samantha Catalano
Full tables at lunch, zero empty desks in classrooms, crowds everywhere: these are the symptoms of an overcrowded school. There are more than 3,463 students at Coronado. With the right to receive the best education, students ditch the way-less crowded schools in their neighborhoods and come here instead. The school has been polluted by students and their parents abusing the zone-variance system [that allows students to be allowed to go to a different school that they are not zoned for]. Students come all the way from the 89014 zip code, which is closer to Green Valley High School than Coronado.
Classrooms are cramped with students from wall to wall. Some students are forced to share desks and or have no desks at all between the four cement walls of a standard classroom. Students do not receive the attention they need and deserve to meet their goals. Instead, they are left to teach themselves AP Calculus AB because the teacher is still trying to count the increasing number of students filling the classroom. When students have to take notes on the floor or in their laps, clearly, something needs to be done.
The bell rings, and students have a limited five minutes to run to their next class, socialize with friends, and make it on time or be doomed to the dreaded tardy pass. This happens six times a day and the stairs are no help. These are the struggles that occur during passing periods, teens’ eyes glued to their phones, walking at a sloth pace, not even worrying about the people behind them who actually care about getting to their classes on time. This is not just about time; this is a safety issue. If there was to be a serious emergency, everyone with classes in the 800 and 900 buildings would be stuck at the stairs behind the sloths. They could be asking their teachers questions before and after class, but instead they have to rush to their next class and suffer the academic consequences.
The parking lot is filled to its complete capacity. Driving students have to make time in their already busy mornings just to get into the parking lot and find a spot. This is a waste of time when these students could be taking time to study, talk to their teachers, or get the extra sleep they need to learn. It’s as frustrating as trying to find a parking space at Costco but with the added bonus of having it filled with not only inexperienced teen drivers but frustrated parents rushing to get their children to school.
The limited elective selection has to be one of the most frustrating things about a student’s every day schedule. Due to the overflow of students, there are not enough electives for everyone. From the seniors who did not get a high enough ACT score to students that paid to do summer school who are now subjected to taking Chinese after already fulfilling their two years of a foreign language, the school is not accommodating everyone. Students who one day wish to be in the medical field are taking Honors Anatomy with 50 other kids who aren’t able to tell the difference between the fibula and the ankle bone.
In order to help bring our school to an at least somewhat manageable level, CCSD (Clark County School District) needs to rezone some students to other schools, stop allowing zone variances, build another high school and hire more teachers to even out the student-teacher ratio and give the students the education they deserve. Until then, parents can stop dropping off and picking up their children inside the wrong areas of the parking lot, students can walk at an acceptable pace in the hallways, and we can all try to get along like one big happy family.
