It’s one of, if not, the most asked question in the Pentucket community: When is Pentucket getting a new high school?

If one were to ask what the students of Pentucket thought of their school, most would say it’s old and falling apart. For the most part that is true seeing as how the school was built in 1954. But with the question of getting a new school comes the question of what should be in it. Now, in reality the school isn’t going to get a pool on the third floor or a McDonald’s in the cafe, but there are some features of the old school that could be expanded in the new one.

When asked, Junior Ben Quinn believes that Pentucket will get a new school and that it “should’ve happened sooner.” Quinn would like to have the same color floors, a bigger weight room, and cleaner, more up to date bathrooms.

Senior Sam Fiore believes that a new school will “eventually” come. In it she would like to see “a bigger gym, better classrooms, basically better everything.”

Senior Joe Garfi is hopeful a new school will be built although he isn’t holding his breath. He wants more classrooms and overall more space. He also wants a room that the wrestling team could wrestle in rather than the mini gym, which is a pretty typical answer for a wrestler.

On the other hand Junior Sarah Steele does not believe Pentucket will be getting a new school anytime soon. When asked, she said “no, never, it’ll crumble to the ground before they build a new one.” However, Steele does have a lot of ideas of what should go into a new school. She would like a pool, a lounge area, better computers, and a big TV in the hallway to replace the light board.

Teacher Mrs. Dolan does not believe that a new school will be constructed. She goes on to say that a new school will be proposed, but “it’ll be turned down because of the old people in the three towns who don’t want to pay for it.” She believes that Pentucket should tear down the original high school and build a massive indoor athletic complex that includes an ice rink and a turf field. She says that it’ll generate profit if it was to be opened up to the public, plus the hockey team would not have to pay to use Haverhill’s rink. Also, she thinks there should more than two power outlets per classroom.

In reality, the chances of a new school being built in the next five years are pretty slim. The root cause of this is the recent construction of the new athletic fields around the campus. Plus, the lack of space to put the new school is also a big factor as to why Pentucket isn’t rushing to construct a new high school, because if Pentucket were to demolish the current school and build a new one in the same spot, then where would the students go? Obviously a school can’t be built over the course of summer vacation and be ready in time for the new school year.

There are many needs and wants to what should go into a school, the list could go on forever. Truthfully, what the new school will be is just an updated version of this one. But who knows, we might get world class rooms or a new state of the art gymnasium.