By Moriah Schranz

This story was posted on January 10, 2024. Here is the original link.

The following column is a student opinion and does not represent the views of Maury High School.

Crumbling walls are one of the problems one may see while strolling through the halls of Maury, Norfolk’s oldest high school.

On Wednesday, December 7, 2023, the Norfolk School Board voted to build a new Maury High School, and they made the right decision because the current building is aging.

Built in 1890, Maury High School has not been renovated since 1986. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, original equipment, including the roof and electrical equipment, should be replaced every 30–40 years. After 40 years, a school building begins rapid deterioration, and after 60 years most schools are abandoned. Based on this report, Maury High School is 53 years older than the average school’s lifetime.

The school building’s condition worries Maury students like 15-year-old Sierra Morrell.

“The environment of the deteriorating school leads to a negative learning environment,” says Morrell. “It’s also concerning for my health and the health of everyone inside of our school.”

Our surveys from October 2023 state that roughly 85 percent of Maury staff and 92 percent of Maury students believe the building should be rebuilt.

Charlie McCoy, a sophomore at Maury, says that the building is decrepit and needs to be renovated before “a chunk of the ceiling falls down during class.”

Despite the health risks, many Ghent residents advocate for the preservation of this building with signs stating “preserve Norfolk’s historic places for future generations.”

The school board’s decision gives preservationists what they want by keeping the current building and moving the staff and students somewhere new, hopefully by 2029, per 13News Now.

At the end of the day, it is the students and staff members spending 35-hour weeks in this building, and it is harder to teach and learn in a decaying facility. Quality education demands a better space, but those who want the current building can have it.

In a few years, we fortunately will no longer attend school in it.