Caitlin Wonsowski

A shot from the halls outside of a classroom during passing periods.

Some faculty members see the large student population as having a positive effect on students. With higher attendance numbers, students are provided with more social opportunities.

The higher enrollment at Community can provide students with more opportunities to build peer relationships, to learn patience, and prepare themselves for the world after high school.  All this while increasing the chances of students meeting others with similar interests. 

In recent years, the population growth has lead to the creation of Strategy club, the boxing club, and this year’s Music Technology club.

The benefits of the increased enrollment compared to West can be seen in action in We Dine Together, where individuals who may not have people to sit with at lunch can meet others in the same situation and potentially build friendships.

School Resource Officer Mr. Jeremy Flood, has seen the population of NCHS rise to 2151 students in his four years here. Flood addressed that the student numbers may be a challenge for staff; that his job is more difficult with the number of students attending football games and during lunch hours where the kids can move around the school more freely.

But he thinks “it’s a positive for students because it teaches patience and prepares you for the real world.” “It teaches you how to wait in line,” Flood said, ” it teaches you how to take your turn and when you get out into the real world, it’s not such a shock that ‘hey we’re not in a little building anymore.’”

Flood graduated from Chicago high school which had 4,300 student. He stated that it would take at least an hour for everyone to get out of the parking lot and then an additional 45 minutes in traffic for students like him to get home. Compared to our parking lot situation it seems to be nothing.

At his high school, “we all had to get out of one parking lot too,” Flood said. “It took closer to an hour. At this parking lot, within 15 to 20 minutes everybody’s out and everybody’s home.”

Students feel the same way as Flood – seeing the real world value of the school’s size. “I feel like the parking lot is obviously very crowded with cars,” Peytan Corcoran, a junior, said. “But people also have to take matters into their own hands and drive safer. Not only think about getting out faster, think about everyone else’s safety.” 

Flood’s duty of keeping students and staff safe changed this year with the addition of two safety monitors. Flood, who is in support of the addition of safety monitors, referred to the monitors as “two more sets of eyes to keep the building safe.”

Safety monitor Michael Triplett expressed some issues with the school’s continued growth in terms of  students “being late to class in between passing periods.” While passing periods have been shortened slightly, “sometimes… kids struggle to get through,” Triplett said, “and sometimes, they’re talking.” 

Principal Trevor Chapman sees the negatives in the large student population as well. Chapman believes the class size numbers are taking a toll on the staff. He sees how stressful it is to plan activities like homecoming, and how crowded the school is during passing periods and lunch hours.