With only two high schools in the entire Judson Independent School District, Judson High School has always been prepared to welcome a large amount of students.

With three middle schools feeding into Judson, compared to only two for Wagner High School, there might be concern for the incoming freshmen classes that continue to get larger and larger every year. Surprisingly, very few things are being done to tame the school’s incoming population – the area is developing at a rate the district cannot keep up with. A new high school is being built that will allow the amount of students to even out eventually. Until then, conflicting emotions concerning the large classes can be found among students and teachers alike.

According to the Judson register office, a whopping 1157 freshmen reside at Judson High School this year. You’d think the freshmen themselves would be upset about being clumped up in such a large class, but it’s actually half true. When asked about how congested the H-Hall, where primarily all the freshmen core subjects are taught, I received a mixture of answers. Many freshmen were very indifferent about the situation.

Yet, when asked about dealing with a large amount of students in a classroom, widespread agreement was reached. Students say that their classes are indeed full, but still have yet to reach an unbearable state. Additionally, they can agree that having larger sized classes makes the learning environment less stable.

Mr.Poelma, a freshman Biology and Pre-AP Biology teacher, wants to continue teaching freshmen, but the quickly growing classes has raised some concern for him as well. Last year, one of his Pre-AP classes only had 15 students. This year, that number has jumped to 27. He says, “having to teach larger classes makes the learning environment less secure and more difficult to control,” but he still manages to do so regardless.

On the topic of the hallways, he states, “the H-Wing is constantly packed, at least until the warning bell.” He explains that hopefully with the new high school being built, the planning that will come with dealing with many students won’t even have to begin. However, if worse comes to worse, he tells me that he and the rest of the school will find a way to tough it out.

Judson High School may be packed, but it’s packed with a wonderful pool of resilient staff and students that continue to grow every year. Even when faced with an overwhelming large amount of Rockets, Judson still continues to persevere. Whether or not the new high school will be much help to the oncoming overcrowding problem will remain a mystery until the 2016-2017 school year. The area will still continue to boom in an exponential way. Until then, the Judson community should be confident that our administrators will come up with plans so incoming freshmen will have a less hectic high school experience.