With second quarter coming to a close, long weeks of testing are only beginning. Faculty Member Bryan Pawlicki is in charge of testing. He gives insight to the current state of testing in our school, saying: “We’ll be doing practice tests in classes on the computer, teachers practice responses in the classroom with drills, closures… all of that is built into regular instruction.”                    Pawlicki responded in an interview when asked how the school had been preparing for the upcoming PARCC assessments and freshmen HSAs. Although, the information from last year’s PARCC scores have not been released, that still doesn’t mean the school shouldn’t study hard for the exams.

“The HSAs for government and biology are still required, however, we know biology is going away next year and it’ll probably be a PARCC-like test. Government, right now, stands as an HSA. If it’ll change, I’m sure the state board will have to make that decision.” Pawlicki responded in an interview regarding the state of the current HSA tests being given.

Along with the new testing that has taken effect in recent years, the new parking and traffic patterns are, according to Pawlicki, “…better in the parking and the accessibility.” Students who do have a parking space really like the new system because they are guaranteed the same parking space every single day, so they know exactly where they are going to park every single day, Pawlicki revealed in an interview. “It has cleared up our problem of people parking on medians, blocking traffic, parking on curbs, parking on the grass, it’s cleaned all that up. We are aware… if someone is not supposed to be parked [there], people police themselves by letting us know right away that someone is in their spot.” Pawlicki commented. He also said that the traffic pattern has alleviated a lot of traffic at the entrance during arrival at school. Parents especially appreciate the new traffic pattern.

Several students have been rejected the luxury of having a parking spot, although this year students began parking at the middle school due to lack of space in the high school parking lot. “I have to park at the middle school and walk over. I don’t mind the walk because as long as I have a spot I’m okay with it.” Junior Ben Sexton commented on his parking situation.

“They’ll probably be even more restrictions on parking next year so that people understand clearly who will be able to have a parking spot…” Pawlicki added. He also stated that this year had been a growth year and with that came learning the pitfalls, and as a result, next year the restrictions on who will be able to have a spot will be communicated earlier.