The courtyard at Francis Lewis has become a place where you can spend time enjoying your lunch or free period without using your cell phone. You can go out, engage in the activities available, or just talk and relax with your friends. This gives students an alternative to staying in the cafeteria, which can sometimes be quite crowded and noisy during the day.
“The entire reason the courtyard exists is so that I could create a space in which kids can interact with each other face to face,” Principal Dr. Marmor said. “They can do things like play, learn how to take turns, look each other in the eye, talk to each other.”
“The entire reason I created the courtyard was specifically so that we could have an alternative to playing on your phones,” Dr. Marmor added. “We do allow phones in the lunchroom, but the courtyard is designed to make kids interact with each other. If we let kids use the phones in the courtyard, it defeats the whole purpose of the court yard.”
The courtyard offers various games for students to play, such as ping-pong, corn hole, badminton, chess, or space to just relax in the sun with benches and tables.
“I think that the courtyard definitely improved how some of us feel during the school day because we’re inside for the whole day and the cafeteria is inside and it’s crowded,” freshman Sophia Castaneda said. “But the court yard is just a place for us to chill for a bit and relax.”
Administration has implemented a “No Phone Policy” in the courtyard, where kids aren’t allowed to use their phones at all. Dr. Marmor is figuring out ways to make the courtyard better.
“I think that it is still used less than I anticipated,” Dr. Marmor said. “We are still working out a couple things, I’ll give you an example. The corn hole bean bag games, they got ruined already, they got destroyed. So we have to replace them with stronger, more commercial ones that won’t break as easily.”
“There is a pool table that is not finished, it’s there but it’s not finished. We have a foosball table, which is a little soccer game. We have multiple picnic tables for people to sit at, so they can come and sit and play games, read or do work on a computer. So it’s not fully complete, but so far it looks like it’s being well used. I would like the equipment to be treated a little better, but other than that everything seems to be going well.”
Teachers at Francis Lewis feel that the courtyard has had a good impact on students, as it helps them get off their phones and interact more.
“There’s hundreds of students in the cafeteria,” social studies teacher Ms. Marques said. “It’s hot, it’s crowded, and I think the court yard is a great space to get fresh air. It looks like they are having a good time out there. It seems better than sitting inside in the dark cafeteria.”
Several students have said that the courtyard improves their mood and helps them with every day performance in school.
“The cafeteria is hot and there are a lot of people and there are students everywhere,” Francis Lewis student Saima Popal said. “You can also get fresh air, you can play ping pong, and if you have friends you can play games. But inside it’s really not fun.”
“It’s good, my screen time used to be really high, but now it’s up to like 2-3 hours,” Popal added. “Everybody needs fresh air, and once you go home you’re busy, like homework, work, anything. So you don’t really get enough time to do anything, but the free period does.”
