This year, students don’t have many options for where to go during homeroom, free periods, and lunch. The limited options they have include the lunch room, the library, and the fourth-floor lounge. What is noticeably missing? The third-floor lounge and half of the furniture in the sixth-floor lounge.

Last year, Raymond Ashkenazie ‘24 promised to have a proper lounge on the third floor when running for President of the G.O. But when students returned at the beginning of the school year, they were met with a similarly empty third floor. Bean bag chairs were removed from the third-floor lounge in the past year, and so far, nothing has replaced them. Instead, a lone chair sits in the corner of the expansive, open area. “Last year, there was a lot of talk of getting a permanent couch instead of the beanbags in the third-floor lounge, and I was hoping that they were going to be there for the beginning of this year,” Rachel Buller ‘25 expressed with frustration. Due to the lack of seating, many juniors are seen sitting on the floor of the lounge or in front of their lockers, disrupting the walkways in the halls. 

 On top of the unfurnished third-floor lounge, the furniture in the fourth and sixth-floor lounges had disappeared. However, this problem turned out to be a technical issue. Over the summer, the cushions had been upholstered from a dull purple to bright blue, and they weren’t ready until a few weeks into the new school year. Throughout the fall, pieces of furniture slowly returned, and the fourth-floor lounge is fully furnished once again, while the sixth-floor lounge is still missing some furniture.

But why is the third floor still empty? “Originally, the plan was to wait for the arrival of the incoming principal Rabbi Aaron Frank to begin the design process,” said Avi Flatto-Katz ‘25, junior class president. “But after a meeting between Rabbi Frank and President Ashkenazie, Rabbi Frank gave us the green light to begin and hopefully implement the designs before his arrival.” Flatto-Katz ‘25 has since been assigned the role of designing the new space. 

If approved, the renovations will begin immediately. Gavriel Harmetz ‘25, whose locker is on the third floor, says he has nowhere to go during his free time, so he is eagerly awaiting the upcoming project. “I really hope we have a lounge by the end of this year.”