Natick High School (NHS) upperclassmen took note this year when the incoming freshman class arrived; they noticed the school felt much more crowded. The freshmen class is currently at 425 students, and the number of students is projected to keep rising in the next couple of years. To find out more about this issue of space, I decided to talk with NHS administrators.
My class, the class of 2018, is currently at 382 students. When my class arrived freshmen year, we were the largest class in the school. The number of students throughout Natick is increasing, and the schools are no longer able to fit everyone comfortably. Wilson and Kennedy Middle School were over capacity in 2014, and NHS is predicted to be at full capacity as early as 2017-2018.
The issue of space might seem overwhelming, but the Natick Public Schools district is already hard at work planning to combat this issue. Elementary school Bennett-Hemenway already has added more space with multiple modular classrooms. Kennedy Middle School is going to be torn down and rebuilt so that it can accommodate students in a modern building. The town is setting up a great deal of additions for the elementary and middle schools, but the high school is dealing with the issue differently.
Many people think that since the NHS building is brand new the school can’t add on, but it can if needed. Located in the southwest corner of the second floor, there is a workroom used by teachers. The architectural design for the school allows a hallway to be added on from that room. The preschool parking lot would then be replaced with extra classrooms.
The NHS building does not need to be expanded anytime soon. Instead, next year, as a pilot program, certain classes will be offered at night. These classes will help alleviate crowding during the day. The night classes still need to be decided by the administration, taking into consideration after-school activities like sports and clubs. The school building itself is always open and its lights are always on until 11 p.m. each night even if no one is there. Administration thinks that they should take advantage of this time where the classroom would otherwise be empty.
So far the classes that will be offered in the evening are a French film class, a senior English class, a web design class, and possibly a P.E. class. The classes would be like a college schedule—they would be on certain days of the week, instead of the high school’s certain color rotation day, and they would be much longer than the daytime classes since the student will cover one week’s worth of material in one night class. The French film class for example, is set to be 3 hours and 10 minutes. If the student decided to take the nighttime class, he/she would have a study or priv block during the actual school day.
Programs like these have already been successful at the school. A morning gym class is offered to juniors and seniors who wish to do their physical activity early in the morning and have a free block in the day. The morning gym class is very popular at the school with around 100 teens enrolled; some students even had to be turned away due to the high demand and limited spots.
Whether this pilot program works or not, NHS needs some new ways to manage the high number of students, especially next year when the school is predicted to be at full capacity.
Issue Date:
May, 2017
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