HomeMy WebLinkAboutScout O'Gara
Chris Johnson
From:Scout O'Gara <fourogaras@me.com>
Sent:Monday, September 24, 2018 5:51 PM
To:C.Jay Coles
Subject:Owyhee High School
Hello. I am writing in reference to the Meridian P&Z recommendation to deny the annexation of the Owyhee High
School site to allow this school to be built. I am unable to attend the October 2nd City Council meeting due to prior
obligations. I am submitting this email as my testimony for that meeting and request it be shared with all Meridian
City Council members.
Our son just graduated in May from Eagle High School. Our daughter is a junior at Eagle High. The construction of
Owyhee will not improve either of my children’s high school experiences…but it is and will be critically important to
the lives of countless other young adults in our community.
Lunchtime at Eagle High School finds the cafeteria full, kids eating in teachers classrooms to have a place to eat,
every inch of floor space on both floors covered by kids sitting side by side in 4 rows (2 rows each facing each other),
and kids racing home or off campus in their cars to have a place to simply eat. Up until this year a lot of the kids who
drove would sit in their cars at lunch so they could have a place to sit and eat, but loitering in the parking lot or cars
at lunch is no longer allowed, so the crowding is intensified. Sitting in cars at lunch also isolates those kids from the
critical social life that is going on inside the building.
There are so many desks in the overcrowded classrooms that teachers and students find it difficult to navigate.
Some students have to choose between sitting on the floor at the back of the room (where they can see nothing of
the instruction being conducted) or sitting in a broken desk (either the seat itself or the tablet being broken) or
standing for the 90 minute class period and juggling note taking.
Trying to navigate hallways at passing period is like salmon trying to swim upstream. I dare any of you to attempt
this at Eagle or Rocky. Our son is tall and bold, it was a nuisance and inconvenience for him. Our daughter is a tad
over 5 foot tall, 90 pounds wet, and shy. Passing period is her nightmare of being jostled and pushed through stifling
air where she can’t even see where she is going over the shoulders of those surrounding her.
In all this verbosity I would like to impress upon you two critically important points.
First, our young people see our actions and our unspoken words. They need and deserve to feel valued on our
community. Forcing them to learn in these overcrowded situations for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week for 9 months of
each year, we as a community are telling them they aren’t worth our creative problem solving. They hear us say
they aren’t worth the work it would take for the City of Meridian won’t support the construction of new schools in
appropriate locations to help them have a healthy, safe learning environment. That depresses me, and I don’t even
spend the bulk of my waking hours in this crowded environment.
Second, the overcrowding is unhealthy for our youth adults mental health. Knowing their community doesn’t value
them is depressing. (Actually, the community supported the bond and passed it…it would the Meridian P&Z and
Meridian City Council who don’t value them if Owyhee isn’t built when it is needed, which is now). The school won’t
even be complete for years, and at the rate of growth by the time it opens it will already be overcrowded itself,
never mind delaying it’s construction. Living in an overcrowded environment is anxiety provoking and stress
inducing. I challenge you to ask any mental health professional who works with young adults how the above listed
learning and living conditions affect young adults. If the goal is to improve mental health in our young adults, to
keep our schools safe, to improve education and test scores, then the goal is to provide adequate, appropriate space
for living and learning to take place. The goal is to listen to the needs of the community, the district, the
stakeholders, and heed their advice and request to build this school, at this site, now not later. Allow the much
needed construction of this school at this site. Now. Please. It is the right and decent thing to do.
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Sincerely,
Scout O’Gara
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