Welcome back readers, to another year of Mustang Country. I’m Chris Morsilli, a senior at Gilroy High, and you will be seeing my views of Gilroy High in this column, which I share with my good friend and fellow GHS senior David Bress, every other week.
My column is meant to inform you, fans of the Dispatch Opinion page, about what is going on with Gilroy High, from someone who knows and experiences what is going on everyday.
Since it is only the third week of school there isn’t exactly a lot to report yet. Last year I talked about the situation with the student parking lot, the cafeteria food at GHS, and, of course, construction. Let’s take a look at the improvements that were, or weren’t made for the 2005-2006 school year.
I am slowly coming to terms with the realization that the situation in the student parking lot has only worsened so far this year. The problem last year was that parents were going into the student parking lot to drop off their kids instead of letting them out in the designated drop-off zones outside the parking lot.
Well, the fiasco continues with a whole new group of Starbucks-drinking, Suburban-driving parents pulling into the parking lot to drop off the new batch of freshmen. At least there haven’t been any parking lot break-ins yet this year, which was a serious problem last year.
The next order of business is to complement the GHS food service on the changes made. Possibly the most noticeable change is that sodas and candy are no longer sold in the school vending machines. Now I’m not sure if this is because a new law requires it or because GHS is really looking out for the health of it’s students or a combination of the two, but regardless it is definitely a change for the better. The vending machines are now stocked with juice and Sobe drinks, which at $1.75 each are officially the biggest rip-off on campus.
While the cafeteria is far from completion (we’ll get to that next in construction), the food service has still made notable improvements to their lunchtime menu.
Last year I wrote a column that expressed my less-than-satisfactory views on the cafeteria food and I earned myself an outraged Red Phone call from one of the food service workers. This year I am happy to say that there are healthier food options, and more of them.
The Mustang snack bar now has a salad of the day and a sandwich of the day, which in my one experience was actually tasty.
Now for the main event, construction: the monstrous building that will be a cafeteria is starting to look like it may actually be finished by the time the current freshmen are ready to graduate.
The new book room and main office were complete and ready for the first day of school and they are top-notch; the main office looks and smells a lot like a doctor’s office, and the book room is much more organized than the old one.
We can still only walk around the gym in a counter clockwise direction, and any student who tries to do otherwise is sure to get a stare down and a stern word from the ever-intimidating security guards that guard the hallways of GHS.
So far the school year is off to a pretty good start, but there are still 160 more days to go, so hold on, it’s going to be a long ride.
