By Kaitlyn Mattiace
Staff Writer
Northwood’s population is on the rise. Class sizes are increasing, the hallways are becoming more packed and the student-to-teacher ratio is changing. This year’s freshman class has 326 students, which is up 14.7 percent from last year, and 22.7 percent from two years ago.
“If this year is any indication, it’s just going to keep growing. And if that’s the case, we certainly are going to need more English teachers, and we need smaller class sizes,” said Phyllis Bazzari, an English teacher.
English classes are especially packed because it is the only class that is required through all four years of high school.
“[This large growth] may create a logistics problem for the school, with classrooms and teachers and resources,” Bazzari said.
The size of the freshman class has been escalating every year for at least the
last four years, according to NC WISE student data files.
“I think they’re just going to keep getting bigger because there are new neighborhoods and I know a lot of people that have moved into my neighborhood that have younger kids,” said senior Catherine Anderson.
Depending on the size of their middle school, a potentially more crowded ninth grade environment could make the transition into high school different for incoming freshmen.
“Northwood is a lot bigger [than my middle school] and it has a lot more people…. I have one class that has 47 people in it, and that’s a little bit different,” said freshman Melanie Mather.
Teachers are noticing a difference in their freshmen classes as well.
“Ideally, at the English 9 level, especially in a regular class, a smaller class than 31 would be better,” said English teacher Kathy Greenlee.
“I’m going to try to teach the way I always teach and encourage kids to stay
after school more because they can’t get one-on-one from me during class time,” Greenlee went on to say.
Chatham County’s population grew by 28.7 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. With more people moving into Chatham County, future growth at Northwood is expected.
While small schools allow people to have a closer connection to their teachers and peers, growth can be valuable to the students in many ways. For example, in a larger school there are more students to participate in clubs and organizations. This makes it easier for clubs to complete big projects because the workload-to-student ratio in a club is less than that of a club in a smaller school.
“The fact that our population seems to be growing means that sometime in the future we will go from being a 2A high school to a 3A high school,” said Principal Chris Blice. “Generally, when you have more numbers, you are able to provide additional opportunities for your students that you may not be able to do in a smaller school.”