Impact on MHS Students

“The stage in the auditorium limits the types of sets we can build and the types of shows we can produce. The proscenium, or opening around the stage, limits the size and types of sets that can be seen by the audience. MHS has no theatrical rigging system - or fly system - that would allow theatrical components to be hoisted above the stage, limiting the types of shows we can present.”

Jonathan Meier, MHS Theater Director

“The scene shop is located directly behind the stage. However, the doors leading to the stage are small so sets often are built on the stage. We have to be careful designing sets because we can’t pre-build and just roll it out onto the stage.”

Jonathan Meier, MHS Theater Director

“It’s important to remember how little time theater students get on the stage. Besides being a performance venue, the auditorium is also a classroom where students are learning about theater and all the skills that go into that. But theater students typically are not able to practice in that space. Having appropriate spaces for specific types of learning is a big deal.”

Jonathan Meier, MHS Theater Director

“We get drastically insufficient time on the stage to prepare for our production because there’s only one performance space. That’s the argument for the black box. If I had a black box theater, we wouldn’t be doing all our plays in the auditorium. We would be doing more of our plays in the studio theater.”

Jonathan Meier, MHS Theater Director

“The competition gym is shared by a greater number of PE classes than it was intended for and, as one of the only large open spaces in the building, is also used for student assemblies, marching band practices, and various other school activities. MHS is unable to host many sports tournaments mostly due to space limitations.”

Troy Parola, MHS Athletic Director

“In years past, MHS didn’t have boys or girls’ lacrosse and the enrollment was smaller. Since then, we’ve added a number of sports and activities and provided more opportunities for kids. But we haven’t added additional space. So, it puts more pressure on the spaces to host these events. The gym is the only option we have for activities that need a large open space. We added two robotics tournaments that shuts our gym down on Saturdays during a time when we have eight levels of basketball.”

Troy Parola, MHS Athletic Director

“We run 12 spring sports and we don’t have enough space to get all levels of those sports practice time. For instance, on a typical weekday in March, we have people starting at 6 a.m. and then after school until 10:00 p.m. We try to rotate who gets the late time.”

Troy Parola, MHS Athletic Director

“We’re one of the few schools that can host home gymnastics meets because we have the equipment while some other schools have to rent costly equipment. So, when we host a home gymnastics meet, we’re shutting down our gym which displaces people going to a location where we can practice.”

Troy Parola, MHS Athletic Director

“In January, there’s a window where we have girls’ and boys’ basketball, wrestling and gymnastics which all utilize that main gym. We also have the Incoming Freshman Night that shuts the gym down for one night. It creates a domino effect. In a given week, we could have a boy’s game on Monday, a girl’s game on Tuesday, wrestling on Wednesday, the Incoming Freshman Night on Thursday and at no time can any team practice in that space. We don’t have the extra court space.”

Troy Parola, MHS Athletic Director

“Because we have so many programs and so few options, we’re having to go and rent space at facilities like the Libertyville Sports Complex and Santa Maria Del Popolo School. We get the Carl Sandburg gym sometimes, but it’s not always available. The elementary school gyms are too small - you can’t have a full varsity practice there. So, we’re renting places. We paid more this year than in the seven years I’ve been athletic director.”

Troy Parola, MHS Athletic Director

“We’re wanting to offer intramural sports. So, in the evening we’ve got open gyms for the spring sports and intramural basketball. Then when we need to close the gym down for student testing or other groups can’t be outside because of bad weather, we just don’t have alternative spaces for practice. Teams will go into the spin room or the weight room because there’s nowhere for them to practice. Or the lower-level teams will just cancel practice that day.”

Troy Parola, MHS Athletic Director

“Other schools with a similar number of sports and a similar number of student-athletes have the ability to get their kids home at a reasonable time. People don’t realize the toll it takes on our student-athletes at MHS. You have to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get here by 5:30 for a 6 a.m. practice. Sleep, homework, side job, family life, it impacts it all. It’s huge. It’s hard on parents.”

Troy Parola, MHS Athletic Director

“We host our dance Invitational on a Sunday. Nobody wants it on a Sunday, but it’s the only window we have where it does not affect everyone else. So we’re having to do things on Sundays to allow us to do things we would rather do during the week or on Saturday.”

Troy Parola, MHS Athletic Director

“We can’t bring people to us. They know we’re good, but we can’t host anything. It puts a lot of weight on our spotlight event in terms of fundraising. An invitational would help immensely with costuming. I need that fundraising money for travel as the program is expanding. A good invitational would net $25,000. But we just don’t have the facility. We used to host a Show Choir Invitational in the gym. But the cost was prohibitive because of the overhead, because you’re running a whole lighting and sound rig. And it was the same day as the Jazz Band Invitational. We had a very failed attempt at the auditorium itself. The stage itself isn’t deep enough, it’s not tall enough.”

Cory Thompson, MHS Choir Director

“What’s really challenging is translating the sound (our acoustics) into the auditorium. The auditorium is so dead acoustically, I’ll say to the students before our first concert: Just a heads-up, prepare yourself for the auditorium. I never feel like our concerts are an accurate reflection of how the kids actually sound. A concert choir shouldn’t have to be mic'd like we do.”

“The ceiling is low in the show choir room there’s no resonance in there. The kids have to over-sing to get their sound out and that’s not healthy. So, we’re jamming kids into a smaller alternate room because it sounds so much better than it does in the choir room.”

Cory Thompson, MHS Choir Director

“We held a dress rehearsal for the Red Rose Children’s Choir back in December with kids from all over the suburbs. We were on stage in the auditorium and one of our MHS sophomores was apologizing to students from other schools about our auditorium. She was embarrassed about her own school. She’s proud of the program, but not the space.”

Cory Thompson, MHS Choir Director

“We don’t have any other indoor space for the marching band to practice except for the auditorium. The gym is used for PE classes. We can’t fit our students in the band room. We try to block off the stadium for our evening rehearsals, but when there’s bad weather, we have to bring them into the auditorium. If the auditorium is used, sometimes we just can’t do the rehearsals. Having to rehearse the marching band in the auditorium is not ideal because they’re standing in a theater that’s pitched. They stand between chairs so there’s not enough room to do any kind of visual motion that they do. We can’t fit the marching band on stage.”

Andy Sturgeon MHS Band Director

MHS has a smaller band room than most of its feeder schools. The band classroom was designed for 80 students; there are currently about 250 students in the program. The room itself was not designed with acoustics in mind, making it more difficult to train students to the subtle differences in sound.”

Andy Sturgeon MHS Band Director

“Band storage is very limited. There aren’t enough lockers for the number of students with instruments. We also have band equipment in rented storage space off-campus.”

Andy Sturgeon MHS Band Director