Imagine walking into your English class only to be confronted with students practically breathing down each others’ necks, standing shoulder to shoulder, all talking at the same time. While our school may be an A school, there seems to be an ongoing struggle when it comes to how crowded some of the classrooms can be.

While it’s understandable that many students want to take a specific class, it shouldn’t be at the expense of a student’s comfort or even their ability to learn. There is not one day that goes by where someone doesn’t fall down because they tripped over someone’s foot or hit their limb on furniture when moving throughout the classroom.

Not only are students at risk of hurting themselves, but those who prefer a quieter setting to do classwork are at a disadvantage. When 35 high schoolers are packed in a small classroom, it can and will get loud. This often leads students to feel as if they are trying to do school work during a Metallica concert.

While the solution might seem as easy as getting more teachers or moving the school to a bigger location, I believe the problem runs deeper.

It would make sense if a faculty member would be the one tasked with making the schedules. Showing up to the same building everyday at 6 in the morning to greet the same people has a sense of familiarity that you can’t find in a third party program.

But rather than a faculty member that knows the school in and out, the school uses a platform called PowerSchool to create the schedules.

This third party has proven that it’s unable to personalize their services for our school, since they are unable to know the specifics when it comes to classroom sizes, how many students a teacher can handle, and how much movement is needed for each class.

For example, fine arts teacher Mrs. Butler has 36 students for her film class. While she finds that a large group of students can allow for more creativity, she also finds difficulties with handling such a large group.

“The biggest thing is keeping track [of students],” said Butler, “especially with a film class where groups are out filming in the hallways.”

Another contributor to the crowd problem is the size of the school. With a Senior class of only 213 students, Charter lives up to the reputation of being one of Broward’s smaller schools.

However, the amount of students per class has been increasing in recent years.

“Typically we expect a certain number of kids to leave after eighth grade,” said Associate Principal Jodi Robins, “He [Principal Springer] opened up more slots for 9th graders but not as many kids left. So, new kids got in and 8th graders stayed and now it’s a huge class.”

While it’s not clear whether or not administration will be following this trend with next year’s freshman class, there will still be a surplus of students that teachers will have to handle for the next four years.

Some might argue that the school should just order more seats or hire a few more teachers. However, it doesn’t address the main problem: the student body is growing rapidly, but the space available isn’t.

So what can administrators do to add more elbow room?

Since the problem involves many students being in one classroom, the logical solution would be to get them out. By including a study hall, the amount of students per classroom is likely to decrease. A study hall would serve as both a productive and efficient way to get kids out of the classroom while remaining supervised.

Places like the library, unoccupied tables outside the school, and even the benches by the car loop could all serve as places to hold a study hall for the students. Though study hall may seem like another opportunity for students to goof off, there will be someone watching the students at all times. By hiring one or more educators in training, it will provide the students with a reliable monitor, creating a comfortable balance between supervision and freedom.

Regardless of whatever solution faculty might find, it will undoubtedly take out of the box thinking and a series of trial and error. Hopefully, we can get back to a peaceful classroom setting with enough leg room for everyone.