The bell rings, late for class. For many students at City High, this is a daily reality due to congested hallways, stairwells, or taking the long way around just to avoid getting stuck in traffic. This year, City High has seen a major population spike, with over 100 more students attending City High than in any of the previous several years.
For many years, City High has been operated with an assumed maximum of 1600 students. However, a recent evaluation of the school came up with a maximum student capacity of 1290 students.
With the hallways continuing to constrict and classes becoming larger, the logical response would be to expand. But with a just recently completed, brand-new arts facility, room for expansion on school property is rapidly diminishing. And with South-East Junior High reporting over 800 students in attendance, as well as a decision by the district to feed students from Lincoln Elementary into South East Junior High rather than North West Junior High, the number of students here at City will only grow from here.
“The biggest changes I have seen this year are overcrowding in the hallways, lunchroom, and in locker areas,” Rasheem Shivers, ‘14 said. “When I first came here the junior year was the biggest class. Now with all the freshmen it feels more crowded and not what I’m used to.”
City High isn’t the only one in the district with a population problem. West High has also been dealing with overcrowding for the past few years. To try and slow down the increasing number of students, the districts have been reformed to redirect several lower schools to feed into City High.
Bigger elementary classes and not having enough schools aren’t the only reason for overcrowding. The English Language Learners program has brought in at least half of the new students to City this year.
“The district made a decision by placing an ‘ELL’ or English Language Learners class here at City High. All of those students had been at West, because historically the great majority of the international student population in Iowa City was on the west side with some international student housing that was at the university,” Principal John Bacon said. “But over time that has changed, and it was becoming much more balanced in terms of where these kids lived. So the district made the decision partly due to overcrowding at West and partly because a lot of these kids lived in the City High area to add the ‘ELL’ program.”
For freshmen, packed halls and bigger classes represent the norm for a high school. But for the students that have been here for longer, this year is a radical change from the past few years. For some students, not all change is bad however.
“I am in the choir department and I know there are 100 freshmen in choir this year. This is the most we’ve had in awhile, which I think is a good thing,” Isaac McNutt, ‘14 said. “It is improving our numbers, which have been relatively small in the past.”
A bigger school population means different things for everyone. For the district, it means expensive programs and expansions, while for others it brings exciting new prospects. The only sure thing is that this is the beginning of a period of great change for City High, and that this is only the first taste of what is to come.
