CVA Courtyard

As the 2024-25 school year flies by, students at CVA have become more aware of the changes that have taken place around the school. There is one change in particular that is worth taking a few extra moments to mention. We have a beautiful facility here, a nice cafeteria, a bistro, and two gymnasiums. However, up until this point, there was one area that had been left unused: The courtyard. It’s a nice little area basically in the middle of our school. We see it every day when we go for lunch or are walking to our daily classes. Finally, this lovely area was opened up for eleventh and twelfth-grade lunches with picnic tables. It is an area that is greatly utilized by both teachers and students, especially on super nice days, as a way to get out into the sun for a little while. Mr. Maiorano is our food service director. He was asked a few questions about the courtyard area, its rules, and possible plans for the future, and these were his responses:

What was your first idea for the courtyard, and was it originally going to have picnic tables?

Mr. Maiorano: “So, I started this job about a year ago and my predecessor had already purchased the courtyard furniture and stuff. Between him and the Superintendent, it was decided to use that area in that respect. So when the stuff came in May, I believe, it was assembled and put out there. I didn’t really have many other ideas because that idea was already decided by the time I was here.”

Are there any of the courtyard rules that you feel don’t get followed very often?

Mr. Maiorano: “There’s really not too many rules; we like to encourage students to just enjoy themselves and have a good time. If you have too many rules it feels more constricting and somewhere you don't want to be, so I don’t really want to say that there are rules, but just things that we ask.  It’s kind of like I am sure many students' parents ask them to do things at home just to help around and keep the place nice and we kind of do the same thing here. You know what? This is your cafeteria. This is not my cafeteria. It's yours and I just hope students would take pride in it because we see kids from other schools come here and see your cafeteria and they are jealous. They see you have this big beautiful cafeteria and nice courtyard and as for rules, I mean, we ask that you keep it clean and such, but I hope you would have pride in your facilities and want to keep it clean."

What are your hopes for the picnic table area in the future?

Mr. Maiorano: “Well, I really like this area and I had never been out there before. You have that little corner area and I think, this is just an idea in my head, that it would be cool to have a little garden area to grow herbs or vegetables and have even like a club or someone to take care of it. Obviously, it's not a huge area, so you can't expect to grow a ton of vegetables, but to even just grow some herbs or spices and have them on hand would be cool."

Would you ever consider putting more decorations up out in the courtyard area?

Mr. Maiorano: “I’ll tell you what... there have been some teachers who had brought up how sometimes when there are dances to open the area up and to hang string lights and such from the trees and that would be pretty cool. We could put a DJ out there, and you could have dancing and activities outside just as much as inside. It’s a nice space and it certainly can be more utilized, but it’s not my space, it’s the students’ space, so I would like to hear ideas from the students as well."