The hallways at Verrado have been crowded since the seniors here started their high school journey at VHS. The hallways are filled with students socializing and standing around during the passing period. It’s hard to even get through the school with how many students are standing around.
This makes it difficult for students to get to class or anywhere they are trying to go. Not only is it an issue for students who are trying to get to class but the students that are socializing are the students that end up being late for class.
It gets to the point where people push each other, yell, etc. Students group up in the hallways and it makes it hard to get around the school.
According to Constance Ibarra, a student at Verrado High School, “It’s so hard for me to get through because people either stand in front of me or get in my way and it gets to the point where I just want to push them”.
Students have to push each other around in the hallways, and people trip over each other and get cut off. This aggravates students and it will become a big issue if it’s not resolved.
Lizzy Martinez said, “I think that they enrolled too many students, it’s over the capacity.”
The school allows a significant amount of students to enroll because, for every student enrolled, the school gets about $3,680 off of that enrollment.
There are also mass amounts of students coming in because a large sum of people from California are moving to Arizona because of te overpopulation there.
Also because of the overpopulation at Verrado and other schools, a new high school is being built in Goodyear; adding a sixth school to the Agua Fria School District.
Sure the school gets money off enrollment but there are other ways for the school to make money as well. The school is so crowded and every year the freshman class seems to get bigger and bigger.
The student government (Stugo) makes money off of lunches, sports games, and school dances.
The issue could be partially solved if security stood in the hallways to get students to class because the students waiting around are the students who are regularly late to their classes because they keep talking until the bell rings.
The hallways aren’t even the only place that is crowded at Verrado; it’s the bathrooms, the parking lots, the school buses, and the cafeteria during lunch.
Students struggle to get out of the parking lot, the bathrooms are so packed every period that there are lines, and the buses are so full that students have to fit three people into a seat. The cafeteria is so packed that students run to lunch just to get a table or they have to sit outside.
Takarra Thomas had some judgment on the cafeteria and bathrooms at VHS, “There are too many people and not enough stalls and there are not enough chairs at lunch; it’s hot outside”.
No one wants to sit outside with the weather that is present in Arizona. It’s hot, the sun beats down on everyone. The lunch lines are excessively long because of how many students there are.
The school might have to make three lunches instead of two because lunches A and B are so full and the lines give students a much shorter amount of time to eat their lunch.
The hallways make students who are coming from PE and those with classes in the fieldhouse struggle even more to get to class on time because students are blocking the way to class.
Arizona is short on bus drivers so some of the buses are so packed that it’s uncomfortable to ride the bus. Some students could start carpooling/getting a different ride to school or more bus drivers need to be hired.
Verrado High School has so many things to fix about the massive population. Things that would greatly benefit everyone that need to be done to make school a better place.
