1. School Dances
My freshman and sophomore year, I was fortunate enough to have my homecoming dances outside. I thought this was significantly better than what it was changed to. Homecoming takes place during early fall when the weather is perfect in Lake Forest. One of the biggest complaints with the current homecoming is how hot it gets in the gym. Having it outside in the cool nighttime weather helps alleviate this issue. For prom, there are also many complaints regarding the long travel times that take away from the night. Hosting it on the front lawn would be much more convenient timing based and price wise.
2. Outdoor Classes
In some of my classes on warm-weather days, we have been able to go outside and do lessons. I think it would be really beneficial for students to get outside more if they had at least one class outside a day. At Lake Bluff Middle School, they had large tents—like the ones LFHS has at graduation— set up outside for students to do work during COVID. This could lead to a much more engaging learning environment than the average freezing classrooms.
3. Lunch Seating
With just a few benches like the ones outside the cafeteria, a portion of the front lawn could be transformed into a nice lunch seating area. Without taking up much space, we could add some comfortable seating for students to sit outside and enjoy a nice lunch in the sun.
4. Outdoor Study Hall
Similar to adding some seating for classes and lunch, the school could move study hall outside with additional seating on good weather days. Of course, this doesn’t have to be required, but I think most students would prefer spending an hour outside on the rare warm weather days rather than rotting inside the musty school air.
5. Parking
To solve one of LFHS’s biggest problems, we could institute more parking. Don’t get so mad by the title— we wouldnt get rid of the front lawn, but instead repurpose the yard space next to the track field where the Team Fit class plays. Many days, Team Fit already plays inside the track and, if needed, could move to the front lawn. Overall, the large yard space does not need to be used for just Team Fit and could solve the school-wide issue of parking. The yard space is around twice as big as the senior parking lot, so utilizing it as parking space could really benefit all the seniors and staff members with more convenient and accessible parking options.
