Often during free periods, students end up lining the halls and stairwells of PMHS, with no place to go. If they arrive at the small common area too late, finding it already filled, they find themselves with nowhere else to go. For the students, it is quite difficult to find an area where they can enjoy their lunch during a free period. With the middle school occupying the lunch rooms during periods 4, 5 and 6, it does not leave much space for high schoolers.

According to junior Nyssa Pryani, who eats lunch in the halls every day,. “I feel like if there were more space, I would utilize it rather than staying in the halls. I attempt to do my work and eat in the commons, but it’s often overcrowded and I can’t find space.”

Because of a growing student population, available space in the school continues to disappear, with few locations for students with frees to go. A direct effect of the unavailability is a pile-up in school hallways. This causes potential interruptions on the way to classes, with hall monitors interceding to clear the disruption.

According to hall monitor Mrs. G, “A lot of people won’t go to the commons because they don’t fit in.”

She suggests that maybe the school could have multiple small areas where different groups of students can go to reduce the number in the halls.

In the end, this issue isn’t something that the administration is unaware of. Mrs. Clark mentioned that the situation at hand is a challenge because there are 900 students that attend this school, and there isn’t enough room because most of the classrooms are at full capacity.

She stated, “The real situation we have is because periods 4, 5, 6 are the middle school lunch and there is not enough room for the high schoolers to go down.”

She did, however attempt to rectify this issue by scheduling most high schoolers’ lunches during periods other than 4, 5, and 6. Doing this, however, affects students’ decisions about which classes to take.

A solution to this dilemma in the future could be utilizing more of Franklin field so there would be more space for students to eat in the fall and the spring. This topic is still being watched over, and will be potentially followed up in the future.