Furness Gets 1.1 Million Dollars

By Manahil Arif
June 8, 2023

Do you want to hear a real life story involving money, mystery, and our school? 

Furness High School was granted 1.1 million dollars for renovations and acquisitions from University of Pennsylvania, according to MacDougall in a Billy Penn article. Furness school's many renovations were most likely a result of this money, which included repainting and plastering all school areas, as well as installing a new security system. The lunchroom received a major decluttering. We discovered these changes as a result of the aforementioned article about the University of Penn grant Furness received. This article provided a chart of Penn grant funding data identifying Furness High School as a recipient of funds for insulation, lead stabilization oversight, paint stabilization related, avian droppings, asbestos and capital fire alarm replacement. 

In case you didn't know, Furness is a very old school, built in 1914. Only recently the entire 4th floor was recently reopened and redesigned. The Furness High School news team covered this report by interviewing Furness students and teachers about the school getting so much money. One of the students said, “I think it was spent on fixing up the school, the walls, the pipes and fire alarms." One employee commented that she was not exactly aware of this event. Ms. Keating says, “I know they just made a massive scraping and painting project in this school." Almost no one knew that Furness received this abundance of money. Many of the teacher's classrooms were moved so that the classrooms could be painted. Since this is very old school, many things have been fixed including bathroom doors, plumbing and sinks. Teachers are finally in the process of getting the air conditioning they've been requesting for decades. Updated plumbing throughout the school and new fountains everywhere. We are all very happy that we got the money and the school was refurbished again. It is bringing joy to many teachers and students to be learning in classrooms that do not have crumbling walls and uncomfortable temperatures. But the question remains - why weren't we informed about this? These statistics should have been more readily available to the public. School community members should always be aware of what is happening in their buildings. 

Why was this information not made readily available to the public? This is necessary information that we, the Furness Community, should be able to understand and discuss with one another. Ask most Furness community members: students, staff, and parents about this money and they will respond with astonishment. As the author of the article states, Eden MacDougall also found their details difficult to access and had to interrogate the school district administration. If this was difficult for a professional reporter, then how can school community members expect to grasp the knowledge and complexities that are involved with budgets, grants, and decisions being made for our school?