The Green Hope hallways are often filled with groups of friends quickly catching up between classes. This year, hallways are more packed than ever, especially with freshmen. Green Hope has experienced an immense growth in population, mainly in the freshman class, posing both opportunities and issues for students, administration and staff.
Green Hope has approximately 2151 students, with the Class of 2027 being the largest class. Last year, there were 506 freshmen, this year’s freshmen class is approximately 585 students — a 13% increase from the 2022-23 school year.
The school sets the maximum number of students a class can have, which is known as a cap. Green Hope Principal Alison Cleveland revealed the school has not set a cap for freshmen classes, which have been going over the suggested limit.
Principal Cleveland explained that other than the Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses which are controlled by the state, the school sets the class sizes. “In a perfect world, I would cap a class and the class would have two or three student openings,” she said.
She also believes that the school’s growth is attributed to multiple factors. “The area is continuing to grow and we have a node of students that in the past were assigned to Apex High and have shifted to Green Hope, and Green Hope is a desirable school,” she said.
Green Hope Physical Education teacher Mr. Nathaniel Denton emphasized that more students can increase participation in classes. With larger class sizes, Mr. Denton was able to split up kids by skill level to create a more enjoyable and competitive environment. He said, “Getting 60 kids in the gym, with two classes of 30, is an ideal situation, with skill sets . . . Basketball particularly, we have an NBA division and a college division.”
Additionally, the larger numbers often correlate with more staff members, which both administrators and teachers appreciate. Mr. Denton elaborated on this, saying, “We have gained a position in our department . . . team teaching with the freshmen is really good . . . Team teaching is combining multiple classes with multiple teachers.”
However, Mr. Denton claimed that larger classes could also have certain disadvantages. “We don’t have a lot of discipline problems but anytime you put more than 70 kids in a gym you have to start looking at the concern of safety,” he said.
The growth in population did not only cause concern for staff, but for students as well. Green Hope student Sanjana Juvvadi (‘24) expressed, “It’s incredibly crowded in school and I was late to class because there were so many freshmen I had to walk through,” she said “Specifically at lunchtime, the population creates an unsafe environment . . . Everyone is cramped up.”
While the increase in Green Hope’s student body has been manageable for students, administrators and staff, the school will continue to adjust to any population changes.
