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Eagle Point kids lack lockers Students want a place to stow their stuff EAGLE POINT -- She wanted a locker. She wanted her friends to have lockers, too. But Kia Kostman had no idea last fall that she would be spending her entire sophomore year getting them. "I knew it would be a lot of work, but I didn't think it would take this long," she says. The campaign Kia began last September to restore student lockers at Eagle Point High School inched ahead Wednesday. School leaders agreed to ask for $69,000 from the school board next month to install new lockers, as a committee organized by Kia recommends. The absence of lockers for Eagle Point's 1,150 students has been a contentious issue for a couple of years. Complaints began soon after a team of staff and parents agreed that the corridor lockers were a nuisance and hauled them away. The lockers were prone to jamming and breaking, all agreed, and a source of discipline problems by concealing contraband. But the lack of lockers has led to other problems. Students and parents complain now that students carry excessively heavy backpacks, and the school provides too little security for students' belongings. Some parents last summer went so far as to complain that the lack of lockers demonstrated poor district leadership, and the superintendent should be removed. Last fall, Kia stepped into the fray: She decided something had to be done and she would do it. Her concern led to her appointment as head of a committee charged with coming up with a solution. The committee -- parents, students, staff, community members -- considered options that included a supervised check room for students' books, and the purchase of duplicate texts to be kept at home. Kia researched options and conducted a preference survey of students and staff. Reinstalling lockers was the favorite. Language arts teacher Samantha Steele, head of the site council that governs most school operations, was impressed with the effort. "They did a great job," Steele says. "They were very thorough." The site council's request is expected to be presented to the school board April 14. The school proposes the district pay for the project with out of its share of state lottery funds. All Oregon schools will get a one-time lottery grant this month. Eagle Point gets $1.1 million. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA