The number of Spring Hill citizens are on an upward curve but this year, more than ever, the effects can be seen in the high school. Completely filled classrooms and various program growths are only a couple of effects caused by the increasing student body.
“It’s more difficult to have group discussions with so many people in one room. I learn best when there’s not as many people and it’s easier to talk as a class. It’s easier for me to learn that way,” Alyssa Budd, 11, said.
It is harder to get individualized help from a teacher when there are so many students. On the other hand, if there are more students, there are more resources available that can help the student.
“The pros to having full classes is you’re more likely to have it with people you are at least acquainted with. So you can get a lot of help. When it comes to learning and assignments, there are a lot of different resources from different people,” Lilly Hunt, 10, said.
Lunch is another aspect of the day that students have seen grow.
“The lunch lines are very long. You kind of just have to get into the lunchroom; you have to be one of the first few people in there to get a table… I’ve seen people sitting on the floor because there are no tables,” Budd said.
As a student, there are some processes that can be improved upon to help the problem of overcrowding.
“Well, obviously a second school- with the growing population. I know that will probably happen in the next few years,” Budd said. “For now, I would say for lunch, you could always split it up into four lunches. For my freshman year they split it up into four lunches, it was by grade level, that may be easier because they cut it down to three and the lines are longer and things like that.”
From a staff’s perspective, there are different problems and positives that come along with the growing student body.
“The professional Counseling Association recommends that every counselor just be in charge of 250 kids, that’s the recommended ratio. We’re obviously over 300 each. We are exceeding that ratio but even more so for teachers. They just have a lot more on their plate with the number of students,” Katie George, counselor, said.
When George first started working at the school, there were about 430 students in total. Scheduling is one of the main problems that the counselor’s face throughout the year, and this year has been a much bigger challenge.
“This has been the hardest year for us to get kids into classes that they didn’t ask for in the spring,” George said. “When we make the schedules in the spring, we base it off of what kids request and then when they change their minds in Aug. it’s been very difficult to move them to those classes. There’s not not much flexibility when those classes are 25, 26 students.”
A new school would help with the growing population, but would come with its own set of problems.
“I would love to just see a CTE building. So just move some courses out… Move the auto-home and life, welding, that kind of program out or something like that… I definitely would love that idea so that we could maintain our size but get a little bit of our space back,” George said.
Despite the large growth in population, the high school at its core stayed consistent.
“The change itself, for the student type and everything, I think we still do a pretty good job of having a small town atmosphere to the school. It hasn’t changed that much. It has to [change] a little bit, but not a whole lot. I still feel that,” David Londene, drafting teacher, said.
