Boone deserves a facility to match its successes

In February, Boone created a single-night mash-up event that featured arts night, open house, and student showcases.

During the night, Boone brought in food trucks and ran raffles in order to encourage current and incoming students and their parents to attend the event.

This large event was named “Why Boone” and was advertised as a night for school pride and for incoming students and their parents to see what makes Boone such a special place.

Overall, this night was a huge success, showcasing many clubs and every academic department that Boone offers.

“Why Boone” was a success, but the question of why the school has to work so hard to convince everyone Boone is a special place still remains.

As a senior, I haven’t gone a year without hearing some student’s awful thoughts about the school he or she attends, which is damaging to Boone’s reputation.

If students that go to Boone don’t even like going to Boone, then it is unlikely that incoming students will be excited to join them.

The cause of current student’s distaste is probably because Boone’s building looks older and more worn-down than other high schools in the district.

Appearance is a superficial thing compared to academic and activity success, but many students don’t see it that way.

However, these students don’t know the extent of how amazing Boone really is, which furthers Boone’s need to show off the school.

It isn’t enough to just show off clubs and departments however. If Boone is to change its reputation inside and outside of school, we need even more help from the Board of Education.

Boone needs major renovations in order to have a building that looks just as impressive as the things going on inside it.

A facelift will also help convince current and incoming students see the school for its strengths.

The school has had some small tweaks since I started as a freshman with new televisions in the commons, lockers in half of the hallways, carpet in the business classrooms, chairs in all business labs, new concession stand doors for the outdoor concession stand, and bathroom stalls just this past winter break. These updates were graciously provided by the Board of Education, but Boone needs more.

On the involvement of the Board of Education, Principal Tim Schlotman said that the Board has been “very supportive over the last two and a half years” with the requests he has made.

Boone received a major renovation in the early 2000s that added a new gym and converted the old gym into a library, but compare that to the number of major renovations that other high schools in the county have undergone and Boone continues to look like the oldest school.

People assume the school is inferior based on looks alone, not based on things that matter like academic performance or club successes.

Boone needs more support from the Board of Education to continue changing its reputation.

“Why Boone” may be the pinnacle of what Boone can do by itself to improve community and student support.

With national, state, and regional-winning traditions in their sports teams and other competitive activities, Boone has so many good things to offer.

“Why Boone” was created to show this to current students so that school morale could increase.

Even though the Board of Education hasn’t ignored requests for small changes to the building, they need to help out even more if Boone is to match up with the appearance of other schools in the district.