The stairway is one place covered with kids during the passing period, and with 300 new students, it gets very crowded. This year our staff decided to start using stairwell direction to help keep the paths organized.

Mrs. Kamish, one of our hall monitors, has been at the top of the stairs directing students every day, as well as the new signs on the handrails.

“I feel like it’s starting to work and alleviate the congestion, everyone moving in the same direction makes it easier and not so crowded.” Kamish said.

If everyone plays their part in using the stairs the way they are directed to, hopefully, stairwell traffic will decrease significantly. Students won’t be gathering in one spot during the passing period, as this was an issue in past years.

“I like it during passing, not everyone goes down the same stairs,” Dr. Elmendorff said. “The staff is very optimistic that this system will help keep the school more organized and less chaotic.”

The stairwell direction has been pretty successful so far this year but there has been some disadvantages to it.

“One disadvantage is that sometimes it makes a longer route to class,” Keagyn Evans said. 

This is just a minor disadvantage with so many more positive effects it has, especially with the traffic cleared up, the slightly longer paths to class should not be a huge problem, and students should still be able to make it to class before the bell rings. 

Overall students and staff have seen positive outcomes from the new stairwell direction. It will take some time for all the students to get completely used to it, as suspected, but as of now, there has been a huge improvement and decrease in stairwell traffic compared to years in the past.