Creating a Better Environment at Pennridge

From investigation it was discovered that improving Pennridge’s learning environment will increase teacher’s and student’s ability to perform their best.  Pennridge’s current environment hinders students and teacher’s abilities because of the lighting, temperature, and comfortability. This issue must be resolved if Pennridge wants to better themselves. Other schools like Central Bucks are already improving upon this as Dr. Bolton was the superintendent there.

After interviewing with Dr. Bolton, it is perceived that it will be difficult to improve these issues. When looking at the lighting, it is hard to improve because classrooms can only have overhead lighting. Dr. Bolton stated, “classrooms cannot have lamps because they are fire hazards.” After talking to an anonymous source, it was identified that this policy is inconsistently enforced throughout the building, some classrooms do indeed have lamps. As far as the temperature goes, it is hard to maintain in such a large building because different parts of the school are running off independent systems. But it is in discussion that individual classrooms which are problematic could be adjusted. It is imperative to fix these problems because not only are students negatively affected. Numerous teachers have said it affects their ability to teach.

Comfort is also something that can improve student abilities. 70% of students said that the yoga ball chairs help them to be more engaged. Students also talk about how it helps them to feel like they are more at home. Dr. Bolton is speaking about how he plans to expand this from the FCS rooms and Studio P because he believes comfortable seating is important. However, he also talks about how they are not going to get rid of nice furnishings for no reason. For this reason, as things become older they will be cycled out for furnishings that support a more comfortable and inviting environment. Overall, it seems that these issues will continue to be prevalent at Pennridge High School because they are issues that take time, money, and effort to fix. It seems imperative to focus on the issue with temperature. This is true because through a student survey conducted, it was discovered that    students believe that the varying temperatures are affecting their ability to learn and focus the most.