For this school year, Venice High has plans to hire more staff to monitor bathrooms on campus, said Principal Cynthia Headrick.  

Since last school year, multiple bathrooms were closed due to issues related to safety and cleanliness.

“We hired some new staff members, new campus security so once they’re processed that will help, that’s one step,” Headrick said. “We are in the process of hiring a night plant manager so that will help with that as well.”

Maintaining bathroom cleanliness with a lack of staff is one of the main reasons for past closures. 

“The reason that certain bathrooms are closed is we don’t have staff numbers to maintain them,” she said. 

With many issues regarding personnel, including custodians and security, it’s unlikely there will be more bathrooms opening up. 

“We are trying to hire some more people to fully staff but even with that I don’t think we will ever open every single bathroom,” Headrick said. “We just don’t have the capacity to maintain them based on the budget the district gives us.”   

Another main concern Headrick noted is safety. 

“Unfortunately there are things that happen in the restroom that aren’t safe so we have to have personnel to monitor especially the boys’ restroom,” she said.  

Many students are not very pleased with the efforts that the administration have currently implemented.

“I feel like they are taking procedures to keep the bathrooms safe, but they need to step up on getting those things fixed,”  senior Jesus Vidauri said.

Many buildings are facing plumbing issues, Headrick said, including the Shop and Science buildings. 

The bathroom in the West Building is available for girls during nutrition and lunch. The all-gender in the main is available.

Boys’ bathroom in the East Building is available during lunch and nutrition. 

It should be noted that these bathrooms do fluctuate from open and closed sometimes.