Around the world, California is the poster image of ‘sunny weather,’ but this time of year is when winter drags along and spring approaches, students around RHS face unpredictable and sporadic weather on a constant basis.

Roseville High School’s expansive campus layout faces a number of obstacles – specifically when downpour ensues.

Students spend seven hours a day at school. When the weather should be the least of our worries, RHS’ uneven grounds become an issue for simply trying to walk to class.

Around our campus it is hard to miss the puddles that have become more of blockades in walkways.

Students know how to trudge through an undesirable path to get to class, often squished between other students under the minimum overhead coverage to avoid being drowned from the storms.
Often now we see many creative ways of students avoiding the obstacles as much as they can, from leaping over the puddles or even squeezing between different barriers and making new pathways.

Not only does the weather affect us outside, but now is coming into our learning environments within classes.

There has been cases of leaking within classrooms, that has become a disturbance.

Often times, PE teachers have had to take the weather conditions into account and change entire plans for the class that were initially supposed to take place outdoors, only to face additional difficulties with leaking inside of the small gym.

The biggest byproduct of the harsh weather is the notorious ‘Lake Roseville’ in the staff parking lot between the 900’s buildings and portables. The on-going joke of the massive puddle has become a school-wide phenomenon going on for years now, may even be as old as the school itself, but the problem is ever-unchanging as each coming school year goes.

The massive “lake” swallows over half of the parking area, and due to the lack of spots, teachers are now moving their cars into student parking.

Each school year, Roseville undergoes a facility inspection called the Facility Inspection Tool (FIT), that is used to rate RHS’ maintenance and infrastructure. And while the report recently added an additional section for outdoor facilities, it isn’t conducted until the spring, after the rain has stopped.

It will not capture the conditions we are facing in the winter when the issue is at its worst.

One snapshot of our campus in the spring doesn’t capture what students face throughout the year. One inspection cannot show what life is like for an RHS student. There is no single image that will truly show what life is like on our campus.

We need to have an evaluation throughout the year to show what the infrastructure is like year round, so they can see a bigger picture of what our campus is like on any given day.

Also, the administration has been putting funds elsewhere into upgrades that do not enhance everyday life at RHS.Therefore, if this report is taken year round, we would see a the funds going towards these concerns into putting the money to the school in a way that is beneficial to the students.

Just this school year, the city of Roseville has faced the struggles of unexpected and hazardous weather like the Paradise fire air quality and a hail and lightning downpour.

Roseville’s campus is perfect for the warm climate, but not every day is the stereotypical pictured image one thinks of as the California beautiful weather, and any evaluation of our campus maintenance and facilities needs to take that into account in order to be effective in addressing issues faced by students.