South’s halls have a new look to them.
Coming back from winter break each room in the building has a new room number sign. Even though these signs were new for the students, this concept was not new to everyone. School Resource Officer Shea Talley is familiar with these new room number signs.
“The previous school I worked at had them,” he said.
PE teacher Jeremy Houchins thinks the new signs will help everyone around the school to know where all the classrooms are located. He admits he isn’t totally familiar with the building, himself.
“I’m not completely familiar with the building since my first year was online at the beginning of that year,” he said.
As schools are looking to improve their school safety, Talley likes the idea of clearly identifying the classroom numbers in big schools like South.
“I think it is a good idea for bigger schools with multiple areas and levels,” Talley said.
These new signs will hopefully provide many benefits for the school. South High can be a very confusing school with all the levels. Officer Talley admits it took him a while to learn the layout of the school.
“I was walking the hallways and setting up camera files a month before school started to get an idea of the layout. It took me a few months to figure out what areas the staff were referring to,” he said.
Officer Talley thinks the new signs will help everyone be able to identify the school better.
“I like them because staff, students, and first responders can see room numbers at a greater distance. This will increase a faster response to an emergency or finding your class before the bell rings,” he said.
Houchins said he feels better knowing that emergency personnel will know the layout of the building better.
“I feel safer knowing that if there was an emergency first responders will be able to identify the building better,” he said.
Houchins also thinks it will help students out as well, especially new students.
“I think they make the room numbers easier to see and will be helpful for freshmen coming in and help them out tremendously,” he said.
Assistant Principal Jenn Sebold thinks the new signs will benefit the whole school.
“Their design is for emergency personnel who aren’t familiar with the building. It will make it a little bit easier to navigate. So in case of an emergency that would help make response time more appropriate,” she said.
These new signs have been going up throughout the Parkway School District. This new project took a lot of planning and was put up at schools at different times.
“As they were going around and doing these, first of all, there had to be a plan created, and that took some time and they did that in conjunction with police and law enforcement agencies. And then they were going through and doing all these in the district and so it was on a schedule,” she said
These new signs will help all students and teachers navigate the building, Sebold said.
“This will hopefully help people who don’t get around the school very often, even teachers. Those big visual things can be helpful, they may or may not be the most attractive but they’re helpful,” Sebold said.
Freshman Maryah Moorehead said she definitely thinks the new signs will help.
“I wish they were up during the school year. I think I would not have been as late and would have not gotten lost,” she said.
Moorehead said it was much easier to find her new second-semester classes with the signs installed.
“They helped me find my classes after my schedule changed. I was able to use the room numbers from Infinite Campus because not all my teachers had their names outside of their door,” she said.
