At the East Hampton Middle School, the brand-new lockers that were installed in September — replacing ones that were half the size and at least 40 years old — have gotten top grades from the students themselves.
“They’re way better,” said one boy, speaking from the back of Doug Milano’s seventh-grade math class on Monday.
“They’re way bigger,” another chimed in. It prompted Mr. Milano to remind his students of the mathematical concept of volume — length times width times height — to confirm what the kids already knew: “The lockers are a real asset.”
There are a total of 471 new ones, including 21 that are handicap-accessible; those serving gym classes and sports teams were not replaced. According to Sam Schneider, East Hampton’s assistant superintendent for business, the lockers cost $244,811 plus $30,500 “for design fees and to abate asbestos tiles that were underneath the old lockers.”
The bigger, better lockers mean students don’t have to lug around big backpacks filled with books. “That’s just not good for them,” Charles Soriano, the school’s principal, said about those heavy bags.
One seventh-grade girl asked why the lockers are a bright, primary shade of blue, rather than maroon and gray, like the school colors. “It’s a more cheerful color,” Mr. Soriano said.
The students’ response has been “extremely positive,” he said. So, too, is the response of the custodial staff, who gave them a thumbs-up and said they are easier to clean.
In other upgrades at the middle school, a water leak prompted the replacement of the gym floor.
In a building that decades ago housed every East Hampton grade, “the lockers were not from then, but it sort of felt like it,” Mr. Soriano said. “It was a high need. There were problems with combinations, a lot of them didn’t work, and we were constantly changing the locks.”
In the process of installing them, the staff “discovered a secret passage and learned even more about our old building on Newtown Lane,” which was built in 1894, the principal wrote in an email to parents in September.
Before they were installed, every student and staff member at the middle school had the opportunity to create a sort of time capsule by signing their names on the wall behind the lockers. “There’s history there, and now your child and our staff will be part of that history,” Mr. Soriano wrote.