Upon walking into any renovated classroom the transparent new windows and the new paint smell signal the end of an old era.

Before classroom renovations were done in the summer and beginning of the school year, classrooms were aged and crumbling. With the remodels, more and more rooms are looking like ideal classrooms. However, along the way, the renovations of some rooms have led to more problems in the class.

Ms. Trine, a chemistry teacher in Room 125, knows first hand about renovation troubles, as her science lab was remodeled over the summer, along with Room 119. She had to become creative, finding ways to deal with her new classroom.

The old classrooms were equipped with power outlets and gas jets for every student, which allowed each student to do his or her own experiments, Trine said.

The lack of supplies has affected the labs Trine can do in her classroom. Each lab group usually consists of four students. For each group there are two power outlets.

“In this lab we have six sinks altogether. We used to have 36 gas jets; now we have 10,” Trine said.

The old lab rooms were designed to fit more students. The current lab rooms accommodate approximately 30 students, Trine said. In most of her classes she has about 32 students. Trine makes do, and eventually another lab table and chairs were put in the classrooms.

Mr. Kopack, Science Department Chair, is also familiar with the sacrifices teachers have had to make during the remodel. The new labs have not met expectations.

“We had college-equipped labs at Lane Tech,” Kopack said. “Now we’ve been downsized to middle school standards.”

The labs were remodeled because they were outdated, according to Assistant Principal Mr. Ara. Some of the equipment was original from the science labs that were installed in 1935, he said.

“We were under the impression that everything was just going to be replaced,” Ara said. “When we came back, it wasn’t what we expected. CPS has a new standard for classrooms.”

According to Ara, the number of sinks and gas jets were minimized because if a science teacher ever leaves, the classroom can be converted to a regular classroom.

It was CPS’s decision to upgrade the classroom, Ara said. Because of the new standard, moving forward, if science labs need to be upgraded, they have to follow the same code.

“While everything is up to code, we did lose some teaching capabilities,” Trine said.

The construction in the science labs is currently not complete. Trine is optimistic that the problems will be fixed by the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year.

“The administration has been very supportive and working hard to fix everything on time. There has been very good communication,” Trine said.

In other classrooms, oddities are making the day more interesting. During the beginning of the renovations, Ms. Chambers would walk into her third floor classroom and would usually be greeted with something new. One day all the desks were piled in the center of her classroom. Another day the projector was crooked. On another the projector screen was the crooked one.

One of the primary reasons the school is being remodeled is to update the dinosaur-age equipment to modern day equipment.

Some new wireless projectors are not working with their respective remotes, forcing teachers to connect their own HDMI cables, according to Trine.

“The only thing that is truly broken [in the science lab] is the projector. I don’t think it was hooked up right,” Trine said.

Thao Mai Nguyen, Div. 669, noticed the problems caused by the remodeling of the classrooms. In her orchestra room, the floor was damaged because of water leaking through the roof.

“In the orchestra room, there’s this huge mountain gap on the wooden floor because of water damage,” Nguyen said.

According to Nguyen, there were problems in the orchestra room that were not addressed.

“Unnecessary changes were made. Instead of [installing] our much needed lockers, fixing the water damage and giving Mr. Payano a door to his office, the walls are painted blue,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen understands why some teachers are frustrated with the new remodels. Some classes have more problems than what they began with, she said.

While Trine and Ara appear optimistic about the new classrooms, it is apparent that teachers have given up a few resources in exchange for a better looking room.

“It wasn’t the upgrade [teachers] wanted. Teachers have had to make a lot of sacrifices,” Ara said.