Every year when students enter the school, the first thing that they see are the empty, dirty, ugly, orange lockers that line the walls. Students walk past them with their heavy backpacks filled with all their books that are needed for that day. Some question why the school does not clear them out and fill the space with something useful.

According to Custodial Supervisor, Michael Jackson, Western is going to clear out the lockers next year. “Next year they are talking about putting it into capital budget to have them be gone.” Jackson thinks they are going to be cleared out over the summer, but the school is not sure yet.

The space is going to be used for shelving with power chargers for laptops and other devices. The only reason that the school hasn’t done it sooner because of money, “the school just doesn’t have it.”

New Principal, Darah Bonham, is excited about clearing the lockers out and is planning to maximize the space for students to learn.

“We are looking into a lot of different options to modernize our building, I classify that as modernizing our learning spaces. So you think of learning spaces being traditionally your classroom, so when I look at hallways, I start to see how can you best utilize space for students to work. Could you put tables, could you put electronic plugs in areas for students to work and be able to charge their laptops?”

Bonham said that less than a half dozen students used, or wanted, their lockers, so over the summer instead of clearing them all out they will leave a few for those students. “The ultimate goal is, not just to put some fancy thing in the hallway, but more to help with the student learning, as it relates to what helps you guys.”