When North Atlanta High School made the move to the 11 story high rise, it seemed like more than enough space. However, with a growing school that went from 1800 students to an astounding 1900+ in a single school year, there is a surprisingly new need for space. The solution? Open the ninth floor and make it a regular floor with teachers and classes.

In previous years, the ninth floor was only used for testing such as milestones and online exams. The eighth floor stairwell connecting to the ninth had a huge barrier around it making it inaccessible to students. In the central stairs, the doors would be locked making the landing just a place for students to stop and rest when worn out by the tiring stairs. For a while, the ninth floor was a barren land, only accessed by teachers and students for testing. However, the ninth floor opening breaks a barrier for North Atlanta, showing its rapid growth in students.

Dr. Hasty, Mr. Molden, and Mrs. Shepard are the teachers who have been assigned to this newly opened floor. Dr. Hasty described her experience so far on the ninth floor by saying, “It’s quiet. I like it. All of the teachers get along really well and it’s nice that the bathrooms are actually clean for once.”

Even though the ninth floor is clean and seems brand new, there are several challenges that present itself. One challenge is assigning lockers to students as most of the students were given their lockers on the hallway where no teachers are present. However, they were able to get a teacher to supervise the students. Mrs. Shepard said, “I really love the ninth floor. The view and space are amazing. My advisory is for 11th graders, dealing out lockers was very easy. For the students however, the placement was not ideal since most of their classes are not on nine.”  

Despite these issues, the new ninth floor marks an important milestone for North Atlanta, showing the school’s tremendous growth as the Warriors head north.