On November 13, the Mt. Eden dance program attended a school board meeting to express their complaints around not having a safe learning environment. Mt. Eden dance teacher Courtney Marshall, dance students, and parents explained that the dance program has been without a room since the start of the school year.
For three months, students have been without a consistent classroom as they waited for renovations to be made as part of the refresh . Construction was supposed to be completed over the summer but was not.
According to students, they did not receive an alternative space like other classrooms that were going through the same process.
Students were frequently relocating from places like the STEAM building makerspace to the PAC. Students reported they often had nowhere to go and ended up sitting in the courtyard, even during zero period.
After finally being told that the room was complete, students said they were shocked to see their new room to be in what they described as in worse condition than before they had moved out.
They did not get the improvements other classrooms received including new lighting, a new ceiling, a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, audio visual equipment, new floors, and more storage space. The mirrors were warped and the room had fewer bars than when the program moved out.
The flooring was supposed to be sprung floors, suitable to absorb the impact of the dancer’s landing repeatedly on the floor, and the floor was refinished but left in its original condition. Dancers said that this had serious implications as the floor caused sustained injury from repetitive impact.
As a result of the inadequate conditions of the dancing surfaces, many students have experienced various injuries, particularly on the knees, wrists and ankles.
“They still have measurement marks in the room that have not been washed-cleaned off,” said Mt. Eden sophomore and dance student Nadiya Adcock. “There’s still metal outlets, where people have already gotten injured on.”
The room has no installed HVAC system, which according to the dancers, is a hazard as heat is necessary in order to have a better range of motion. Without heat, ligaments and joints become stiffer, increasing the risk of serious injuries.
Upon being asked about what problems the room has that limits their safety, dancer Sophia Hoang said, “No heat. So when we dance, we could get injured easily.”
“Whenever we dance on a wooden floor, even in the PAC, many people get a lot of injuries,” added Nadiya Adcock. “And also in the PAC we have no mirrors, so we can’t check ourselves when we dance.”
Over 20 community members expressed their disappointment in how the students and program were being treated. Several of the board members apologized during the meeting and Superintendent Reimann promised to meet with Marshall to find a solution.
The current plan communicated by the district is to renovate the room to meet the educational and safety requirements that the students need. In the meantime, the dancers will occupy the PAC center as this is currently the only feasible classroom space that can accommodate them.
