Image by Ames Community School District.
With glass plastered all over it, students both gawked and gagged at the new building’s rather interesting architecture. Overall, however, students were not very interested.
Still, despite the student body’s overall disinterest in Ames High School’s new building, the new building signified the end of the pandemic’s dark times. The early post-COVID years could easily be described as somber from the omnipresent depression, or awkward from a year’s worth of hiding away from society. This was exacerbated by the administration’s instability, a series of cigarette-trash can fires, and a major gun threat — it was reported that an AP Focus Physics class was left with five students from the original whopping thirty-two by the end of the day.
Image by NorthStarFirepics
Similarly, even with the minimalistic, modern new building, most first impressions still surrounded the havoc in the summer of 2022 with the array of physical fights, bathroom drugs, and frequent replacement of administration. Such issues were indeed correlated to the 2021-2022 year, but sentiments regarding the situation began to change in 2022-2023: they were taken as a joke, a more positive perspective than the previous fear felt from the dire threats to school dynamics. The issues that were unique to Ames High School were dwindling, thus naturally, students faced more relatable school issues prevalent in many other schools throughout the United states as well as TikTok, a social media platform with a large teen demographic.
Moreover, even these humorous impressions started to wane as the student body’s focus shifted to new opportunities that ensued with increased club activities. One notable club was SACRE, a club which started with a few discussions and walkouts to branching out into multicultural fairs and summer leadership conferences.
Image by Ames High ICF on Instagram
This multicultural fair held last April 2023 was a revival of an event last held in 2019. From Ames Community students to faculty, the event was a major success with its three dance performances, cultural food stands, and welcoming, connective nature. Such events are truly a reflection of the students’ sentiments upon the new building, though unbeknownst to them.
Now, the second year at Ames High School’s new building has commenced, and students have already noted the diminishing violence and drug cases. With the strong establishment of student council leadership and student body representatives at board meetings almost as soon as the new building came into sight, such students’ voices gradually started reaching the administration.
Although Ames still faces problems with administrative corruption, a common complaint of the teachers, the pandemic’s major crises have been averted as of today and continue to be mitigated through programs such as RULER Learning and the increasingly functional student government — a future to remain hopeful for.
Read more about RULER
Blog Entry by Sarah Park, Ames High School, 8th period in AP Language and Composition