At the start of the year, Rose welcomed a total of 549 newly enrolled freshmen for the 2022-23 school year. Because the number of incoming freshmen has increased over the last few years, teachers and administrators are finding ways to make adjustments to ensure they have a smooth transition into high school. 

     “We have increased as a school overall, right now we are sitting at about 1540 [students] which is up from last school year,” Principal Darryl Thomas said. “We have definitely increased in freshmen, but we’ve had some new sophomores and other transfer students as well.”

     Although there has been more talk about the size of the freshmen class specifically for this school year, this is not the first year that the freshmen class has been larger.

     “I think last year we were still getting through COVID and people were out a lot more so it didn’t seem like as many students,” social studies teacher Stephine Noles said. “I think because this is the first year that we’re all back in the building, this year it’s a lot more noticeable since all the bodies are actually here compared to the COVID year.”

     Even though it’s more noticeable this year, Monroe did say that this increase in freshmen has been happening for the past two years.

Photo by Rachel Nelson 

     There are several different causes believed to be the reason for the larger freshmen classes over the past two years. Monroe thinks one of them is returning back from COVID. 

     “I believe that for the past two years and probably for a couple of years to come, students and schools are feeling the remnants of COVID and its impact on academics and student success,” Monroe said. 

     However, Thomas expressed that he believes a large reason for the increase in freshmen is just Rose itself. 

     “I think we’re the best high school,” Thomas said. “I think we have a great staff here at Rose High School and I think that kids enjoy coming to high school here and they tell other kids about it and then they want to come as well.”

     Thomas also said that Rose offers a large number of rigorous courses as well as many clubs and organizations that help bring in kids from all different schools and increase enrollment.

     The new freshmen are coming in from several different places, not just Rose's feeder schools. 

     “Of newly enrolled freshmen this year, we have had a large number of students come from private schools, however, we have had just as many, if not more, transferring from other public schools in and out of state,” Monroe said. 

     Thomas said that Rose gave several tours to new freshmen who were coming from private schools and some of these tours were led by Rose students.

     Both Thomas and Monroe expressed that the challenges in dealing with the increased number of freshmen have been very minimal. 

     “The main adjustment has been the class sizes, some of the freshman level classes have had to add a few more students than usual but we’ve found a way to balance it by adding more desks and in some cases more classes,” Thomas said. “There have also been a few teachers who have offered to teach another class they maybe weren't originally supposed to teach to help with managing class sizes.” 

     Even with having to add more classes there seems to be no issues with finding teachers to teach them. 

     “We have been able to hire teachers in core areas such as English, math, science and social studies,” Monroe said. “But we are still hoping to fill some CTE positions.” 

     Thomas said the only major issue the school has faced has been in the cafeteria, since there are so many more students in there at once. However, the administration has created new cafeteria expectations and guidelines to help keep it under control. 

     Even with increased enrollment over the past few years, Rose has not met its cap on students and plans to continue to allow open enrollment. 

     “You never want to turn any students down and although the number of students does come with a cap due to managing class sizes, as of now I expect Rose to continue open enrollment,” Thomas said.

Although there has been a big increase in freshmen enrollment this year, Rose has navigated the challenges well and kept any issues very minimal.