This list of things that should and shouldn’t be covered by the school was brainstormed by Journalism students.

Covered Costs:

• Tissues-  The tissues we have right now are the quality of sandpaper, and teachers currently have to supply them for their classrooms.

• AP exam charge/SAT- The charge for testing is $92, and students in more than one AP class have to pay for each one.  This is similar with SATs, which you pay for each time and each type of test that you take (test & essay or subject test)

• Free parking/no fees- Every year students have to pay $180 for a parking spot, and still face issues with people taking their spots or sometimes not getting one that is ideal.

• Air conditioning- Though there are only a few months of the year students and teachers must deal with heat, it makes it difficult for people to concentrate and learn.  To even get fans in the classrooms, teachers have to provide their own.

• ChromeBooks- When the library is booked and all of the laptops are taken, teachers cannot always do their planned lessons, and students cannot work on papers and projects.  Especially in journalism, there are ten laptops, which take at least 20 minutes to log on and run low on battery, which makes it difficult for students to type their articles.

• Good water fountains- If you walk around the school to find a water fountain, there is a good chance the one you will find would have an empty water bottle or food in it. Aside from that, the water does not even come out of all of them.

• Working music stands-  With limited music stands, students have to go two or three per stand in order to have their music held up.

• New seats in auditorium-  Many of the seats are broken, old, and look as if they will fall apart.

• Better Plumbing- In the girls bathrooms, there are sinks that have been blocked off for at least a couple of years, and toilets that spray water as they are flushing.

• Fix shades in classrooms/broken screens- When the weather is nicer, teachers and students alike love to open the windows to let fresh air in, but that cannot always happen due to broken screens that could let in bugs that students are allergic to.  Also, when we have a sunny day and students cannot see the boards some classrooms have broken shades that make it impossible to shield us from the light.

Shouldn’t Be Covered:

• Freshman football field-  When the football field was constructed, it was thought that it would be a practice field for the freshman, but that hasn’t been the case.  Not only that, but why are the goal posts facing the streets?

• Summer school being paid for failing students-  When students are failing, the school shouldn’t have to cover the costs for students who do not put in the full amount of effort.

• Unused exercise equipment-  Though it is great that there are exercise bikes and other various types of equipment, who uses them?  Hundreds of dollars was spent on this and not many people put them to good use or even know about them.

• NECC classes/books- While the NECC classes are beneficial to students, a lot of school districts make their students pay for both the classes and the books, but Pentucket covers the costs for all students (if they take classes part of the Dual Enrollment program).

• Teacher parking passes- The big question is why do students have to pay $180 per year for a parking spot while teachers are already paid for… How are they able to cover the cost of continually reprinting teacher’s passes each year, but not covering the costs of the students?

• Unused SmartBoards- Most classrooms throughout the school contain SmartBoards, but half of the teachers who have them do not use them.  Also, even if teachers ask for broken ones to be fixed they never are.

• Do not need a turf field- Though many people want to improve our athlete training areas, having a turf field would not be realistic financially, especially since athletes would also have to buy new cleats.

• Student ID- Why does the school cover our school IDs when they are completely unused for the whole year?

• Fewer golf carts/ flatbed truck for janitorial staff- What is the use for them and why do we need so many?

• Unused textbooks- Many teachers have stacks of old, unused textbooks in the back of their rooms and do not use them for their classes because they do not have full sets.  Maybe unused books should be sold to add a fund for a project that needs to be completed.