A graph showing the ratio of students to classrooms of the 7 surveyed schools.
Photo Illustration by Khang DoBy Benjamin Minch, Staff Writer
At Fountain Valley High School, there seems to always be teachers sharing classrooms, or having to switch between them mid-day. This issue has made itself apparent when room B3, a designated dance room, was used as a math class instead. The giant mirrors in the back of the classroom beg the question: are we too crowded at FVHS?
Overcrowding can be calculated by using an overcrowding index, the ratio of students to classrooms. Seven different high schools around the area were counted. Here are my findings:
CDM- 79 rooms/2557 students
Huntington- 92 rooms/2939 students
Marina- 120 rooms/2438 students
Beckman- 81 rooms/2648 students
Westminster- 96 rooms/2668 students
Ocean View- 68 rooms/1549 students
FVHS- 99 rooms/ 3704 students
Based on these numbers, the calculated student to classroom ratios or “overcrowding indexes” were found.
Marina: 20.32 students per classroom
Ocean View: 22.78 students per classroom
Westminster: 27.80 students per classroom
Huntington: 31.95 students per classroom
CDM: 32.37 students per classroom
Beckman: 32.69 students per classroom
FVHS: 37.41 students per classroom
According to this data, the average amount of students per classroom is 29.33. FVHS is high above this value, but this isn’t significant unless it is more than one standard deviation away from the mean. The standard deviation of this data however, is only 6.04. This means that FVHS is indeed outside of one standard deviation and is statistically different from the other values. Since this value is also much higher than the other schools, we can conclude that FVHS, compared to other schools, is in fact overcrowded.
This overcrowding can be evident in the amount of leveling and class sizes that we have here at FVHS. Many classes have huge waiting lists and many kids are unable to get into the classes that they want to take. For example, Online English classes have waitlists of over 100 students. This overcrowding causes some students to not get the most out of their high school experience as it leaves them trapped in classes they do not want.
Overcrowding also has many negative psychological and physical effects. Overcrowded places are faster at spreading diseases, and the outbreaks are usually more severe and frequent. This also affects mental health because usually, people feel less comfortable in a room with a lot of people and some can become stressed out or overwhelmed. Overcrowding also induces more social conflicts because there are more people and conflicting personalities and views. This hasn’t happened at FVHS (as far as we know), but it could be more frequent as we continue to grow in population size.
Overall, overcrowding and large populations are global problems, not just problem exclusive to FVHS. There is a worldwide trend toward overpopulation, and there is unfortunately not much we can do. We must try to adapt to the changing sizes and do the best with the limited resources available to us.
