Overcrowding at Rosa Parks is also impacting our ability to continue school-wide events like science fair at the same level. In years past, we have always displayed science fair projects in our commons area (lunch room/gym) during the school day so that all students/classes can view the projects. This year, we were told that use of commons area during the day for science is no longer feasible because of the multiple demands for use on that space (lunch & P.E. and drama classes). That means science fair will be an evening-only event. This also severely limits the time we have to evaluate the projects and provide meaningful feedback prior to the evening viewing of science fair projects (literally limiting the time to a couple of hours after school to review about 200 projects or more). It’s frustrating for parent volunteers to feel so rushed to judge and set up projects, and to limit the viewing time of projects only to the evening. In the past, science fair was a terrific chance for students to showcase their science work to their peers and teachers, but because of overcrowding, that opportunity is now more limited.

Beth Torlone Sigall, Redmond