New Year, New Hamber

Photo Credit: Tony Chow

While every school year brings its own set of challenges, this year posed one of the biggest ones yet for Hamber students and staff: the transition into a completely brand new school. The first day of school left both new and returning students scrambling their way through the foreign hallways, confused by a new layout. As the weeks progressed, Hamberites became more accustomed to the reality of the new building and students and staff alike started noticing both the benefits and drawbacks of the new school. 

One major concern for students was the switch from full-size lockers to assigned half lockers. Matthew Truman (10), dislikes the half lockers because he got a bottom locker, and he “has to bend down to [use it], so I don’t actually use my locker because of that.” Truman requested to change to an upper locker at the beginning of the year, because of a medical condition. “I have Osgood-Schlatter, a condition in my knees, so it’s hard to bend down sometimes.” His request was denied by the office. 

The decreased locker size also leaves less space for students to store their larger items. Lucy Jackson (11) is the goalkeeper for the Senior Girls Field Hockey team, but she isn’t able to fit her field hockey stick in her locker. “Now, I put it either in Ms. J. Polukosho’s (English), room or in the storage lock up,” Jackson said. Student athletes who have to bring multiple bags to school are left with less room in their already small lockers. “I can’t fit my volleyball bag, my textbooks and my umbrella [in my locker] because it’s not long enough,” Bianca Lawrence (8) said. “I wish they were full body — I was so ready to put everything in there!”

Another aspect of the new building are the spacious and modern gym spaces. The gyms are an impressive feature of the building, boasting many large windows and new sporting equipment.  Brandon Kwan (10) noticed the updated equipment early on in the year. “I play basketball, so I really like the new hoops. The gym floor is also really clean,” Kwan said. 

Improvements in the gyms provide P.E. classes and teams with better spaces in their respective sports. Compared to the old school, Eleanor Uy (10) thinks the new small gym is much nicer than the one in the old school. “The gym is just bigger in general,” Uy said. “It’s an actual functioning gym, and not just a smaller room.”

The most noticeable difference between the old and new gyms are the pull out bleachers. Hamber’s old high rise bleachers served as the main seating for Hamber’s iconic tournament, Midtown Showdown, but now the seating will look different for fans in the stands. 

“It might be a little hard to fit as many people [as usual] or just to watch in general,” Jackson said. “I think it will get less energetic if there’s less people there.” 

However, Kohen Lennox (9) thinks the smaller bleachers will benefit athletes in both tournaments and regular league play. “The bleachers weren’t filled up for our games last year,” Lennox said. This year, with the bleachers on the floor and closer to the court, “it will feel like there’s more people [at the games].”

The designers of the new school implemented “huddle spaces” onto both the second and third floors for students to collaborate, work, and learn. These include tables and chairs, couches, and north facing desks that provide a view of Vancouver’s cityscape. Last year, students had limited options of places to study during FIT time or a free block. “The library or the atrium were the only two spots,” Suwhan Hsu (12) said. “Adding the couches and chairs [was] a big help to us, I use them almost every day.” 

Some challenges became apparent to staff members during the process of moving from one school to another. Teachers were given a small window of time at the end of last school year to pack up their materials and an even less time to unpack at the beginning of this school year.

Mr. D. Lee (Science) described the transition as “extremely difficult…[and an] added challenge on top of a regular work requirement.” Staff were expected to simultaneously pack up their classrooms and wrap up the school year, essentially “working overtime” as Mr. Lee put it. Once the old school was packed up, staff left for the summer and had to come back shortly before school to unpack their classrooms. 

According to Ms. N. Buonassisi (Languages), before school started, teachers “could come in any day that week [before school] with limited time.” 

“The boxes were brought over for us, so we didn’t have to do the heavy lifting part, but there was no support to unpack the boxes on this end,” Ms. Buonassisi said. 

Restrictions were also imposed about what furniture teachers could bring over from the old school. “We were only allowed to bring two filing cabinets from our rooms and very little furniture,” Ms. Buonassisi said. While she was told she would have to leave her bookshelf in the old school, Buonassisi decided to bring it home with her in the summer and then back to school in the fall, which was “totally not allowed.”

Aside from the obstacles in the moving process, teachers' individual classrooms also had evident problems. Lee observed what he called “deficiencies” in the school early on in the year. These included chipped floors, loose fixtures, chipped paint on the walls, and broken lights or motion sensors. “It seems like the VSB’s plan was more: let’s just get this up, and then we’ll deal with the deficiencies afterwards,” Lee explained.  

Additionally, some resources were brought into the school with no one equipped to use them. Ms. Buonassisi received a wireless projector,  but was not instructed on how to use it and still uses a wireless dongle to connect the devices. 

“There’s a tech support person at our school… but we’ve been told he needs to learn how to use it first,” Buonassisi said. “They told us if we put in any requests for support, it would take a long time.” 

Another change is the lack of a crosswalk at Laurel and 33rd, which is near the entrance to the staff parking lot. Many kids who get dropped off in the mornings jay walk at that intersection, which could prove extremely dangerous if they are not careful and encounter a distracted driver. 

The implementation of a crosswalk could be beneficial for students, but unfortunately, Mr. N. Despotakis (Administration) doesn’t “know if it’s missing, or if the city hasn’t determined we need one yet.” 

He shared that during the first two weeks of school there was a traffic control company who were monitoring the flow of the traffic, and their reported data went to both the city and Hamber’s project manager. From this data the city decided to put a camera on the side of the road to monitor the traffic flow and kids crossing the street. 

“Hopefully, after they get the data from [the camera’s video]...some concrete plans will be put into place,” Despotakis said. “They should take into consideration the safety of our students.”