The new $144 million Grand Junction High School building is causing students and staff to continue to voice concerns.
“I expect a building to have almost no issues,” said GJHS sophomore Ellie Hesch. However, for this school, this doesn’t seem to be the case.
Mechanical, upkeep, and building issues, like faulty elevators, the cleanliness of the water fountains, the breaking of automatic door activators, HVAC problems, the addition of frosted window film, broken/lack of functional furniture, and most noticeably to those who walked past it, a pipe leakage located on the second floor resulting in a waterfall effect are disrupting everyday routines.
GJHS senior Carmen Barrientos acknowledges that student vandalism led to numerous problems last year, but now other fundamental problems raise concerns.
“A lot of the issues in the building are just because of how quickly everything got done. We were on time and under budget, and now we have weird chairs and our science rooms are leaking,” said Barrientos.
According to Barrientos, the majority of the problems led to a lack of hindsight into future problems when the building was in construction.
GJHS math teacher Gregory Hartman is not placing the fault on GJHS’s custodians, instead praising the maintenance put into the building.
“The maintenance team has done an excellent job keeping up with the school. I find there are more concerns regarding the systemic issues that have been present since the school opened,” said Hartman.
Staff reported that while simple upkeep does not prevent larger issues, it facilitates daily operations and provides a functional working environment.
GJHS lead custodian Jason Garrison describes how the transition from the old to the new building has had growing pains, but was ultimately beneficial.
“When we moved in here last year, it was fairly challenging before they tiled the walls.… This year has been by far the easiest,” said Garrison.
The addition of the tiles to the walls, allowing the walls to be cleaned more easily and guarding them from the everyday grime, has not been the only aspect of the school that was forced to renovate since its opening to make it more functional for everyday use. Last school year, the auditorium had to be renovated as viewers could not see the stage from the front rows of the balcony seating.
Ongoing use of the building has led to continued maintenance requests, which staff work to address.
