Features

An unexpected increase in Berkeley High School student attendance has caused the addition of 10 new classes at the school, the creation of the equivalent of two new full-time teaching positions, and the reshuffling of some student schedules. 

BHS officials say that school enrollment is currently “fluctuating around 2,900 students.” 

In an e-mail sent to BHS parents and supporters last week, Vice Principal Mark Wolfe said that while the school “recognize[d] that these schedule changes may create a temporary disruption, they will balance classes more equitably and reduce overall class size.” 

Students received the new schedules on Monday after school counselors and volunteers worked over the weekend to draw them up. School counselors said that the schedule reorganization went well with the students “since it relieved some of the complaints we were getting about overcrowded classes.” 

Although complete data was not available at press time, counselors Stephen Chang and Susan Werd said that the combination of new staff and schedule changes will result in smaller class sizes for at least some students. 

Chang said that the class reshuffling came “later in the school year than we’d like, but there’s no question that we needed it.” 

Both Chang and Werd attributed a good portion of the unexpected increase to what Chang called “a huge extra bump in incoming freshmen.” 

Freshman counselor Werd said that more than 120 freshmen have registered at Berkeley High since the beginning of the new school year earlier this month, an increase which she called “significantly more than last year.” 

Although she did not have figures on freshman enrollment coming in after the beginning of the last school year, she said that she typically holds two orientations for such students, while this year she has already held four.ß