Being the complaning teenagers we are, we rag on our school way too much.

Maybe it is the whiny teenage complex we all have inside us; we like to think that the parents and staff at this school don’t care what kind of environment we learn in. Contrary to popular belief though, it turns out they do.

We met with FCPS School Board representative Liz Bradsher, Principal Paul Wardinski, and Assistant Principal Jennifer Knox to discuss what the future holds for our campus.

The meeting was called in to discuss the editorial from our first issue of the school year: “This year: new school or new ’tude?”

To be clear, we were not being apathetic about the condition of our school. We love the staff and students here; the article was simply our way of asking the student body to stop complaining about the deteriorating physical plant. Being negative doesn’t help make the building better, all it does is provide a distraction.

We want people to get involved in the renovation process and to appreciate the fact that we do have a good administration and staff, as well as a chance for a great education.

That said, we would really like to thank Bradsher for meeting with us. She gave us a lot of new information about the renovation process, and recently brought to our attention how hard the school board has been working to ensure that we get the renovations that we so desperately need.

Thanks to her efforts, WS renovation funding has been added to the next Capital Bond for 2011.

This means that next year the school board will begin their planning for renovating our school. Then renovations will finally start in 2013 and perhaps be finished by 2016.

This is a vast improvement from where we stood before, since we weren’t even on the list for renovation. At best, we were scheduled for 2017.

We owe Bradsher big-time for helping our school to move so much higher on the list.

So, here’s how you can repay her: Go to school board meetings, write to your school board representatives and stay positive.

Every other Thursday, the board meets. Sign up for a speaking spot and tell our representatives how great our school community is and how you feel we deserve a building to match it.

Thank them for moving us up on the list and thank them for creating such a strong learning environment for the entire county.

Kindness will get you farther than you think.