This school just recently finished construction on its new Olympic-sized natatorium, which cost around $55 million. Not even a year after opening, it was the location of the 2025 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup. Although the HiLite staff does find the natatorium’s subsequent construction to be irritating, especially in regard to transportation complications and continuous disruptive fire drills, it has ultimately worked out in favor for this school and the city of Carmel as a whole.

Although the product of all of this construction has been undeniably beneficial to our school, the tedious and all-encompassing process of the construction is the negative. Fire drills have begun to occur more and more frequently as the dust sometimes triggers the fire alarms. 

Due to the constant unplanned fire drills during valuable class periods, students are disturbed during instructional time. Additionally, teachers need to adapt their content plans to fit into the new shortened class periods in order to ensure they get through all of their educational material. Construction as a whole is a finicky process, and its ramifications have been exemplified time and time again.

Another concern raised is the extended transportation time for student drivers at dismissal, as most exits and doorways have become blocked off, causing a myriad of traffic issues. This school has many upperclassmen student drivers that drive their cars to school on a daily basis.

With all the construction happening around the school, students may end up being stuck in long lines of cars as most entryways get closed off, causing them to be tardy to school. Students tend not to allocate for traffic complications when they leave home in the morning, so any additional time in the car could potentially cause lots of people to be late.

Overall, the school board pouring money into construction and advancing the building is making the school more unique and resourceful to its students and providing amazing opportunities, but the continuous construction throughout the campus is causing daily problems as well. The HiLite Staff proposes that the school, instead of continuing construction projects back to back, create a gap in between each project. During the time in between gaps, the school board can spend money on their clubs and abroad programs that students with financial problems can go to. We strongly believe these breaks in construction will lead to a more well-rounded budget and more convenient experience for all students and staff involved.