Locker Request on Lockdown

The installation of additional lockers, sufficient to serve the entire student population at the Darien High School, has been considered—and reconsidered—by the Board of Education as both a capital project of highest-priority, and one they would not miss were it cut from the budget entirely.

"This is probably the most controversial request," said Principal Dan Haron in his presentation to the Board of Education. 

Lockers are already in short supply at the high school, the result of an enrollment boom and a related space crunch. To afford administration more teaching space, an entire "locker pod," or group of lockers, has been converted into a full-size classroom. The conversion has left 1302 regular lockers for 1284 students.

And Haron says the reality of the shortfall is worse than the numbers suggest; on any given day, at least 10 lockers do not work, and some special education students require more than one. A predicted influx of 40 students next year will put further pressure on the locker situation, hence the request: 80 regular lockers and 80 gym lockers with a cumulative price tag of $24,000.

"The request for additional lockers is to really make the board aware that if every student in the high school did want one, they would not be able to have one," said Haron.

For safety reasons, Director of Facilities Paul Engemann considered the installation of the additional lockers a "Priority Level 1" capital project, and presented it as such to the board last November.

Engemann and Haron argued that high school students need a safe place to store valuables, especially at gym where changing is mandatory and backpacks get in the way of participating.

Larceny at DHS has topped the police blotter more than once since the start of the school year.

Still, where supply is low, demand is lower.

"A substantial number of students do not use their lockers," Haron said.

In that respect, board members say a $24,000 request for a hypothetical problem is hard to defend; and with pressure from the Board of Finance to shave an additional $1.59 million from the proposed budget, lockers fall from their initial "Priority Level 1" standing to the budgetary chopping block.

"I'm going to throw out—I'm sorry Mr. Haron—the 60 additional lockers at $12,000," said Chairperson Kimberly Westcott at the board's proposed-cut discussion, Jan. 26.

"I'll throw the gym lockers in there too," said Member Heather Shea.

It's not all doom and gloom, late last year Haron proposed a more prudent alternative that he thinks will serve the school well: a by-request-only system.

"Our suspicion is that we would have fewer requesting, and we'll probably be ok," he said.

The Board of Education will present and discuss updates to the proposed budget before approving the final document at its regular meeting Feb. 9 at 8 p.m.