When students arrived at school in August, they were greeted with a renewed blacktop at the back of the campus. The previous blacktop had asphalt that was falling apart, so the Santa Ana Unified School District paid for repairing the blacktop as part of annual renovations.
Principal Mr. Ray Gonzales said, “I think it was a great update and way overdue.”
The blacktop is where the volleyball and basketball courts are, and where Physical Education takes place daily. There are four basketball courts as well as six handball courts alongside the locker rooms. The asphalt included all basketball courts and an additonal area adjacent to Lillie King Park. There are spray-painted boxes on the ground with numbers where the students sit during attendance in P.E. class, too.
Eighth grader Arely P. noticed the new asphalt two months ago when a friend of hers pointed it out. She said, “I think that the blacktop does matter because we get to do a lot of activities.” Since the asphalt was a new improvement, she believes that there should be mirrors in the bathrooms as another improvement.
Other recent improvements that MacArthur has had include the addition of air conditioning inside the fitness room. The school also added a functional sink for the art room.
Eighth-grader Nathan R. saw the new blacktop at the beginning of the school year. Nathan said, “The blacktop doesn’t really matter, but two of my favorite things during P.E. are playing handball and basketball.” For future improvements, Nathan hopes that more lunch tables could be added to increase the seating during nutrition and lunch.
The largest previous improvement was the modernizations of 2012. That year, two new buildings were constructed that now house rooms 25-36 and the additional bathrooms. That year saw the elimination of most of the temporary classrooms on campus; however, both the music and art programs are in portables near the front of campus. Perhaps building a permanent building for those rooms could be the next improvement for the MacArthur campus.