With the start of the new school year, one big change to the Manhattan High school campus has caused a mix of anxiety and excitement. 

For decades, Manhattan High School has been separated into two different campuses. The main or West campus, housing sophomores through seniors, was located at 2100 Poyntz Ave., with the East campus for freshman being located five minutes down the road at 901 Poyntz Ave.

After years of debate over combining the two campuses, this was the first year where we are all together in one building, which has caused a mixed review.

The Mentor Editorial Board believes that the new campus is a positive change to Manhattan High school. However there are changes that need to be made in order to increase the safety and comfortability of our school. 

One driving factor of the merger was the shuttling of kids from one campus to the other throughout the day, causing the school lots of unnecessary transportation bills and making each student around five minutes late to class, which in turn interrupts teacher lesson plans. Now with one campus, the school is saving lots of money and students are not late to classes and aren’t making teachers adjust their lesson plans for late students. 

Another advantage of the change was that our school had a greater sense of community. Many times, freshmen wouldn’t be included in events like pep rallies and might even have less appearances in the yearbook because of a lack of access to pictures and interviews. However, with this new change upperclassmen and underclassmen may begin to form friendships and see each other around the hallway more. 

With every large change comes some problems, and one of the more obvious ones is the large amount of traffic in our building. Even with new classrooms and sections of our building being built, the amount of traffic in our hallways seems endless. This problem is especially difficult right before school when traffic is flowing every which way with no sense of flow or direction. 

Another notable problem is the traffic after school. A majority of students have after-school commitments they have to rush to, however with the buses taking up a large section of our exits, getting out and to where you need to be on time can be a nightmare. 

One final complaint is the increase in the number of lunches, therefore decreasing the opportunities to have lunch with a good friend or someone you know. The increase in lunches gives food service staff members more time to reset the servery for another group, however that also creates an  imbalance in the class schedule, so a 20-minute study hall was inserted as a remedy. However, while instructed to, teachers don’t always give students that 20 minutes to study when they need it.

With every problem comes many different possible solutions. For example, one possible solution in order to solve the hallway traffic is to have hallway etiquette reinforced. Everyone has somewhere they need to be, so if school administration reinforced the “stay on the right side of the hallway” and “don’t take up the whole hallway to talk to people” rules, that problem would more than likely solve itself. 

Furthermore, if we had designated parking spots for different grade levels, getting out of the parking lot at the end of the day may be more organized than it is right now. Another possibility is releasing those who have to go to sports practices five minutes early from class, so it would be easier for them to get out and make it where they need to be on time.

The hardest problem to fix is the three lunches. While most would agree is understandably necessary, it is also a downer for the students who don’t have lunch with their friends. The Mentor believes one possible solution is to keep promoting the Sunset Commons, a new addition to the building this year, as a good lunch space, which may open up more room to go back down to two lunches. 

Ultimately, Manhattan High school can address the many changes this year by experimenting with solutions that will make the quality of life here during our school day more intentional, productive and safe.