I am a seventh-grader at Millstone Middle School. It has come to my attention that next week our town will be having an election on whether or not we should build a new school. I believe that this would be a beneficial investment.

Our school is crowded, and if you were there you would not be able to deny it. Last year, classes were extremely crowded and had an average of about 27 students per class. This year, we have cottages, and they are not an improvement. Our nine cottages are really trailers, and even though the school is encouraged to call them "cottages," it doesn’t hide what they are or why we have them. The trailers are OK on the inside, but we still have a lot of kids in the class. I can tell you that I am not looking forward to snow days this winter. Why? Because my classmates and I will be the ones walking in slush, snow and ice. It rained on the first day of school and although this might not seem like such a big deal to you, it is when you’re wearing your new school clothes and you’re forced to run out in the pouring, wind-blown rain.

So we have trailers; that might make you think our school is crowded, but that’s only the outside. On the inside of our overcrowded school you’d be lucky if you could walk the hallway between classes and not be pushed, bunked into or even knocked down. When I first came to the middle school, I thought that we’d be lucky if five people could fit across the hallway, but every day more than double that [number] walk across the halls in different directions, squeezing through, trying to get to class.

That’s walking in the halls, but then add trying to use your locker in a mess like that. Of course you could just carry an extra book, but those are super heavy. So you only have two other options: wait until everyone is done using their locker so you can use yours (but you’ll wind up late for class), or you could use your locker at the same time as everyone else, while struggling (and sometimes still winding up late for class).

Being late is not something you want to do when you have teachers as good as ours. They are so unique and wonderful at what they love to do, teach!

Lastly, I would like to say that even though I am in seventh grade and will not be in the new middle school, I know that it is something our town needs and will be in its future no matter what. Please talk to your child(ren) and think about how and where you want them to learn. I don’t think it is in an overcrowded school building (and "cottages"), but I do think it should be in a good learning environment. So get out there and vote for a brighter educational future for our town on Sept. 30. Thank you for your time, and I hope you remember to vote for what we all know is right — a new school!

Arielle L. Disick

seventh grade

Millstone Middle School