Like any student body, there are things that Dakota students would like to change about our school that we believe would improve our high school experience. There are a couple topics that I noticed seemed to be an issue in many students minds about the school. One of them being the state of the parking lots during the winter and the recent replacing of the French fries with tater tots. I took to the halls to ask some of our student body about how they felt.

I took a student from each grade and asked them three simple questions.

       What is your opinion on the state of the parking lots?

Freshman Sophia Lambert said, “They need to be better taken care of. For new drivers, like my sister, it can be difficult to maneuver around the parking lots.”

Sophomore Lily Everly stated, “It sucks having to go through that slush everyday. There needs to be better plowing and people need to learn how to park.”

Junior Allison Jansen replied, “I think that it is kinda nerve racking having to drive in a parking lot with all the snow because they usually aren’t plowed very well. And being kinda new drivers, it is a little unsafe.”

Senior Bailey Bonacorsi told me, “You can’t see the personal parking spots, so I don’t really know if I’m parking in someone’s spot or not. I just really hope I’m not. And you can’t see the lines for parking after it snows.”

       As a follow-up question, I asked the students: What do you think can be done to make the parking lots better?

Lambert answered simply, “Plow more, salt the parking lots, and don’t be stupid.”

Everly gave a short answer, saying, “Plow all the snow and don’t leave slush.”

Jansen replied, “Just making sure that they are plowed thoroughly, as well as plowing Cougar Drive and all the entrances would really help to make it feel safer.”

Bonacorsi said, “I don’t know. They could plow them before school started before people are already in the parking lot.”

       After getting their opinions on the parking lots, I then asked a question that was on many student’s minds: What’s your opinion on the decision to get rid of the French fries and replace them with tater tots?

Sophia Lambert, being a Freshman, couldn’t comment on the French fries because the Ninth Grade Center did not serve them and does not currently serve tater tots.

Lily Everly had a strong opinion about it, saying, “They should get the fries back because they’re way better than the tater tots.”

Allison Jansen said, “Well, I never really got lunch, but I think it should have been looked at from the point of view of what the students want because they’re the ones paying for their lunch.”

Bailey Bonacorsi gave some constructive criticism saying, “If the tater tots were made right, not mushy, and they gave us decent portions instead of just a few, I wouldn’t be that mad, but it’s not a fair trade.”

       From the interviews that I had, it was easy to tell that the students had some issues about the way that the parking lots are and about the replacing of the French fries with tater tots. I personally believe that the school should take what the students think into consideration in order to make us feel safer and make us enjoy our experience here at Dakota more enjoyable.