On Aug. 21, drilling could be heard outside the Bonita Vista High (BVH) 700 and 800 classrooms, as the 800’s school restrooms received repairs. Throughout summer break, construction workers have slowly been fixing the 800 restrooms to upgrade BVH’s outdated campus. BVH Principal Lee Romero shares the details and delays of the construction.

“They actually started over the summer. They ripped all the flooring out because it was rotting. Then they put new flooring and new plumbing in. It’s gonna be a whole revamped bathroom,” Romero said.

BVH Assistant Principal (AP) Carlos Siragusa was previously in charge of working for the facilities and was involved with the repairs of the 800 building restrooms. Since Siragusa has had a change in position, he no longer is working on the repair plans. Although Siragusa may not be a part of rebuilding the 800 restrooms, he shares more on what was done to make sure they are restored to a working order.

“The maintenance department will come in and evaluate the restroom to see if it’s something fixable. If it’s beyond their scope of fixing, they’ll go in and change whatever [the maintenance department] needs to do to make it up tothe code,” Siragusa said.

In late 2022 to early 2023, Sweetwater Union High district hired workers to rebuild the restroom’s flooring and multiple other issues that were expected to be repaired. Siragusa shares the reasoning of why the restrooms need to be repaired.

“We’ve put in work orders to fix the [restrooms], but I think over a period of time, things will get worn out. And then I guess it’s beyond the kind of fixing that we have to replace, and repair and to make it safer,” Siragusa said.

For this case, over time the 800 restroom’s flooring had gotten worse throughout the wait for it to be repaired. There are multiple challenges with construction when it comes to having delays. Companies may face a lack of time and equipment, which can result in major setbacks or worse cases. Romero explains what other issues that BVH has come across contributing to the delays with the 800 restrooms getting repaired.

“There’s always delays in construction. Unfortunately, the maintenance department in our district is so backed up that they have to prioritize [their] needs. Their biggest need right now are air conditioning units,” Romero said. “The next issue on the table is a result of the big storm that we had, [which caused] a couple of rooms [to be] flooded.”

In the past, the BVH 800 restrooms were used by both faculty and students. However, the faculty did not obtain any restrooms towards the back of the campus. As a result, the district later came with a final decision to create the 800’s restrooms as another facility restroom. Romero shares the reasoning behind this decision.

“There are going to be bathrooms that I believe are going to be slated for staff members because staff don’t have any bathrooms out on that side [of the school]. So, [that is why] we’re going to make those staff bathrooms,” Romero said.

For many years multiple faculty members have suggested including a restroom for staff members towards the back of the school, since all faculty restrooms are on the other side of the school. Romero shares about the faculty who supports this suggestion.

“I spoke to maintenance about [making the 800 restrooms for faculty alone] because we have so many bathrooms for students. [Maintenance] believed and agreed that we need to have more bathrooms for staff so they said we can make the[800 bathrooms] just [for] staff,” Romero said.

Although numerous BVH faculty members have the same idea that adding a restroom for faculty in the 800’s would be ideal, multiple students disagree. Junior Kaylah Campos has strong opinions about this decision and shares her input with the 800’s bathroom only being used for  staff members.

“I think it’s unfair in a way because there’s more students than there are staff in the school, especially during class. Not many teachers use the bathrooms so I feel like there should be at least another bathroom that could be open for students,” Campos said.

BVH’s campus contains nearly eight to nine faculty restrooms for teachers and staff members to use during school hours. However, the back of the campus does not provide a faculty restroom for staff members. With many new upgrades being built in the 800 restrooms it takes time and money that the district provides.

“We don’t even [know the] cost, only [the district knows]. [The district] just fixes the [restrooms]. It doesn’t cost the school anything [since the] district pays for things like that,” Romero said.

After all the hard work from fixing the old restroom, a new and improved restroom is added to the BVH campus. Little by little as the school starts, small improvements are made to the campus to create a clean and remodeled environment. Even though  it’s just one restroom BVH  is slowly making upgrades to the campus.

 “When we do construction, or anything here [at BVH], [staff members] try to improve the school. […] That’s what our intentions are, to make everything better for our students, make a better learning environment and make the best learning possible for our students so they can get the best education possible,” Siragusa said.