This year there have been a few classes exceeding a regular class size of 20 to 24 students. These classes are packed elbow to elbow and not very much room to move around.
The reason for this is the intermediate school has this new program that sends eighth graders to the high school to take advanced math classes. Usually, there were around eight students or so. This year there were about 20 eighth graders according to Counselor Quinn Takashima.
This was found out last minute which also caused the blank spots in so many students schedules. They had to open a new class altogether for all the eighth graders and it was all done within a day or two.
When asked on how this might have been avoided if possible Takashima, who had to make last minute changes to the schedules, said, “The communication between the middle and high school need to be a little better, and that’s on both parts.”
Spanish teacher Erin Sunday has one of the oversized classes. The class has over 30 students in it and one student said, “we’re going to have to start climbing over the tables to get around here.”
On the matter, Sunday said, “I’m lucky it’s a bunch of really good students in that class like well-behaved students. It would be a totally different experience if there were a lot of disruptive students in that class, but it’s overwhelming to have that many kids in the class.”
She also said that she felt bad for the students by not having a lot of room to move around. Sunday said, “I’d rather have a big class with really well-behaved students than a small class with five students who are always causing problems and causing disruptions.” Sunday’s ideal classroom setting, she said, was a small class with motivated and hardworking students.
Due to the schedules, this year most students in the oversized classes are stuck there. Other required classes prevent them from being able to change to a different period.
For science teacher Sean Nonamaker’s forensic class, multiple students had to leave the class because of the overabundance of students. The class still has about 25 students from the original approximate 30 but has some more room in it.
There were a few complaints at the start of the year for the classes. Those haven’t been any since the first couple weeks of school. A student in Sundays eighth period class said that now that things have mellowed out that it isn’t so bad but that it’s hot in the room. When asked if he could last the semester he simply said, “Yes because it’s going to get much colder soon.