The main building at Bowie needs basic maintenance and has and still is being neglected.

The new athletic center, theatre and parking garage are all beautiful additions to Bowie, but they only cater to a small portion of the students here at Bowie. The rest of us are mostly in the main academic building. 

The main academic building has no AC or heat because when the school was built it was an open air school. With the current environment we live in, they had to cover the window and close the doors. Leaving us with no way to control the environment inside the building. 

Some teachers have AC and others don’t. Some have personal fans in their classrooms, and others are constantly sweating. And the hallways are always at extremes based on the weather we are experiencing because of the cement walls and floors. 

Teachers even complain about the conditions here at Bowie and what they experience in their classrooms, the frigid cold or the heat during the summer and early fall due to lack of air conditioning and heat. Some even tell stories about rattlesnakes getting into the school through the doors and the state of the teacher bathrooms which doesn’t seem to be much better than the student ones. Even in the portables the AC either works or it gets really hot. You never know what you’re going to get. 

Hearing that the teachers’ bathrooms aren’t all that great it’s not surprising considering the state of the student bathrooms in the academic halls. It really depends on the day and what hall you’re in but the bathrooms aren’t in a good state. Some toilets don’t flush or have foreign objects in them. Some of the faucets to wash your hands don’t work and at one point there was a picture floating around school of a urinal that some broke and was pointed up and sprayed on the mirrors. 

The neglect after the winter storm to investigate the damage done to the building caused the whole wing to be without water for two days on two different occasions and resulted in some classes having to take class bathroom trips to the athletic facility.

While the people who use the athletic building and will use the theatre would probably argue that it was needed for the success of these programs, I think the school district and the school should have been more focused on the building that affects everyone and not just select groups of people. 

For these buildings to be built our parents voted on a bond so that their taxes that they pay would go into the bond instead of being taken by the state to fund other schools and districts.  

This bond was to work on and rebuild the parking lot, theatre and athletic building first. While an additional bond will be needed to work on the rest of the school. I think that they prioritized the wrong things first. 

While the new athletic center and the parking garage are helpful I think that we really needed to focus on the main building first. The maintenance that will eventually be done to the academic wing, will end up probably benefiting  more people. Knowing that the building is up to date and doesn’t have water leaks or no air conditioning or heat I think will put everyone’s minds at ease.  

The new buildings that have been added to this school are beautiful but we should work on making the old building beautiful too. The main building should be a comfortable, steady environment for all students and faculty, not always unpredictable.