San Jacinto high school was Initially built in 1910 and was located on west first street. In 1968 58 years after the construction of the school, it was relocated to its current location. Within the past few years nothing has been done to accommodate the growing number of students. The best solution to the increasing number of students would be to build a new school but there has been no talk of this happening soon. We’ve asked some teachers who have had a long history here at SJHS to hear their opinion on what the school should do with the ever increasing number of students.

“How long have you been here in San jacinto high school? And what is your name?” asked  Abraham J.

“ My name is Christine Thomas, I’ve been working at San Jacinto since 2006, so I think this is my 16 year”

“My name’s Mrs.Vella. I’ve been here 18 years”

Responded, Mrs.Thomas and Mrs.Vella.

“Do you think San Jacinto High School meets safety standards despite the bunch of students?” Abraham J, asked.

Mrs.Thomas replied with, “I know that the two lunches are getting pretty full, and there have been talks about having three lunches, but I definitely think because we’ve been growing; It’s not unheard of, there are schools that have higher populations than ours. But I think that we do need to; our facility needs to change and grow with the population. We’re already 40 in a classroom, in a lot of our classes and we are already being overcrowded. Some teachers are sharing classrooms.”

While, Mrs.Vella’s response was, “I would say no, I think there’s too many students on this campus for the size it is, and especially when they want you to stay in the quad during lunch time. We have like 3 thousand students, so students are particularly on top of each other… In that quad; and there’s no shade for everybody, there’s not enough space for everybody. I think that’s definitely a safety issue.” 

These teachers have all seen big amounts of expansion from the school, and agree with the fact that opening a new school will be a better option, due to overcrowding and the abundance of new students coming every year.

Abraham J, asked,  “How do you feel about a new middle school being built, when a new high school is more needed?” 

“Well, I know that there are plans to continue to grow SJLA. So their hope is that a lot of our population here will go to SJLA as they expand in the high school; so that should take some pressure off of our growing population and facilities, crunch here.” Mrs.Thomas replies.

“How long do you think that can sustain?”

“Well it just depends on how fast our communities keep growing. I see new houses being built all the time, so at some point there’s got to be a talk about another high school. Definity.” she answers.

“Has the school been expanded since you started working here?”  AbrahamJ.  asked,.

“When I first started working here, they’ve just built the 500 building to two stories, and then they expanded with the portables in the 600s, and this 200 building used to be one floor, and they built up.. But we never really built out. ” Mrs.Vella answers.

In conclusion, a new high school opening up at San Jacinto doesn’t seem like a bad idea, and will help in minimizing overcrowding. This is Abraham Jiminez from the Tiger Media Network, signing off.