Special report from Greenwood High School: Population growth cramps school space

Editor’s note: The City Wire invited journalism students from Greenwood High School to obtain real-world reporting experience by researching, writing and contributing stories to The City Wire. The following story is the second of six planned stories from the participating GHS students. Story topics planned include packed school facilities, “Spirit” at the square, and a look at “Senioritis.”

story by Meagan Childers and Darsey Geren, Greenwood High School students.

Greenwood High School officials will have to make adjustments in the 2009-2010 school year with the sophomore class enrollment expected to bring 80 more students to the high school campus.

School officials estimate a high school student population count of 830, compared to 750 now on campus.

Each teacher is allowed a maximum of 25 to 30 students in a classroom. To handle the increased number of students, school officials hope some teachers from Wells Junior High will teach in the high school.

Parking should not be a problem according to school officials. A newly paved parking lots should be more than capable to handle the larger capacity of student drivers for the next school year. With stadium parking, senior parking, renaissance parking, band parking and the new cafeteria parking, students should find plenty of parking space. Normally at the beginning of the year the lots are available, but toward the end, it begins to fill up as students reach the legal age to drive. 

Cramped classrooms raise the possibility of teachers facing a harder time maintaining discipline in their classrooms.

“Generally, I would say so. … Lack of space causes discipline problems sometimes,” said Vice Principal Mike Dean. Also, he said rules could be more strict with the halls becoming more crowded.

However, Dr. Kay Johnson, superintendent of Greenwood Public Schools, does not see problems with students.

“No, I don’t think so; the students coming up are a pretty good group,” Johnson said when asked about discipline issues.

Johnson said in the future the freshman class may move to the North Main campus (nearer the high school). Such a move would allow transportation to be easier between classes for the freshmen students.

Johnson said the district has a 10-year growth plan projection for students. Greenwood now supports 3,530 students, but in 10 years the student body count will grow to 4,415.

School officials also are pushing a new program called “Group Project Oriented Learning Opposition.” The program is under the umbrella of the Environmental And Spatial Technology (EAST) initiative. This allows students to split into groups, choose a service that would benefit their community, and do it all through computer-based technology. The new program will require a new teacher and approval by the district’s board of directors.