Albany High is a school filled with opportunity. The biggest decision is choosing whether or not you would like to succeed or fail. A school so big no longer provides someone to hold your hand as you walk through the door the first day of freshman day, then across the stage to take your last steps as a high school student.

Although there’s no longer someone holding your hand through the hallways, it would be nice to attend a school where leaky ceilings are not a problem and where you can get through the day without the temperature changing by 50° from class to class.

You have numerous choices AHS, each filled with opportunity, however there has never been a choice about the building students spend four years of their lives learning in. When asking about positive aspects of the building, seven out of fifteen students had something positive to say. Two of the positive views were based on the teachers, not the building itself.

Logan Aiello, as well as three other students, believes that the court yard is a positive aspect of the building, however only seniors are allowed access to it during the school day. If one of the only things people view positively about the school is offered to only one grade is it even a positive aspect?

When asking the same group of kids about the negative aspects, each student had something very similar to say. Romina Noffula said “The air conditioning doesn’t work” and  Osama Ali commented on the lack of windows giving the school a feel of “a prison.” Ali’s complaint is not alone.

Molly Hogan also commented on the fact that most of the classrooms don’t have windows. When asked why she felt this was a negative aspect Hogan said, the rooms are “way too hot and stuffy”, she said “you get no fresh air”. If these responses aren’t enough to discuss a new facility, what is?

Out of the fifteen students interviewed, thirteen believe a new school is needed. Vered Ornstein said “If we really want to improve the school and the students within it, we need to provide a comfortable, stable place for them to go to learn.”

Osama Ali stated “There’s too much wrong with the current building to fix it, it’s time to start over.” The students who attend AHS are the ones affected each day by the building itself.  “I’m sad that they’ve waited so long to start this project. Thousands of students’ lives could have been different had a new building been in the works a long time ago.” said Ornstein. When students are stating that a new building is necessary for the success of their peers and themselves it’s time to listen.