Now that'd be a big class picture

[JonInMiddleGA]

Article in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the state's largest high school (or at least it seems to be the biggest). Mill Creek HS in Gwinnett County, with enrollment of 4,018.

For some perspective,
-- that's bigger than nearly 400 of 500 or so cities/towns in the state
-- 53 trailers to have enough classroom space for students.
-- 69 school buses
-- 104 clubs focusing on everything from improv and military history to standbys like Key Club and the yearbook.
-- larger than 100 of 181 school districts in the state
-- larger than six counties period
-- nearly 1200 parking spaces

And yet "this spring, Newsweek magazine ranked it No. 741 on a list of the 1,351 best U.S. high schools."

But help is on the way, a new school is due to open nearby in 2009. That is expected to cut the student body at Mill Creek ... down to 3700

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2007/08/29/millcreek_0830.html

[DaddyTorgo]

eek!!!

my HS was...800 kids tops

and yes, that's a public school

[JonInMiddleGA]

Heck, mine was around 700 tops, and that was grades 8 thru 12 combined.

[Logan]

My high school was about 2500 (9-12), and that's on the small side for the area I grew up in.

[stevew]

Sadly I'm sure the 2009 facility will not be large enough and they'll be back to trailer edumacation within 5 years.

[MikeVic]

The high school I went to (9-12) had around 1000 kids at the time. I could be wrong, but I was told that it was one of the bigger ones in western Canada.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Sadly I'm sure the 2009 facility will not be large enough and they'll be back to trailer edumacation within 5 years.

Actually, if the 3,700 estimate is correct, they already know they'll still be in trailers since the school was built for only 3,250.

[Lathum]

I had 10 kids in my graduating class

[VPI97]

If I'm not mistaken, my local high school (McEachern in Cobb Co.) has around 3,600-3,700 this year.

[rkmsuf]

I had 10 kids in my graduating class

orgy

[Alan T]

I went to Highschool in Cobb county (NW of Atlanta) back when everyone and their brother was moving out there in the end of the 80s, early 90s. My Highschool was built in the early 80s to help take the load off of an overfilling Sprayberry HS... While I was in school, we climbed up to 3700 students, and they had to open two brand new schools in the area as well (Pope HS and one other one I don't remember the name of).

My graduating class was the smallest of the 4 years I was there, at only 840 students..

I think this is a common thing that happens when a school district is not able to build schools and fill them with staff fast enough to handle wildly growing areas.

[Alan T]

If I'm not mistaken, my local high school (McEachern in Cobb Co.) has around 3,600-3,700 this year.


My mother taught at Mceachern back in 82-83 I believe.. Not really related to the topic at hand, just felt it funny seeing it mentioned here :)

[lighthousekeeper]

Article in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the state's largest high school (or at least it seems to be the biggest). Mill Creek HS in Gwinnett County, with enrollment of 4,018.

But help is on the way, a new school is due to open nearby in 2009. That is expected to cut the student body at Mill Creek ... down to 3700


If this were Sim City, the game would be flashing a warning message every few seconds.

[oliegirl]

I went to Highschool in Cobb county (NW of Atlanta) back when everyone and their brother was moving out there in the end of the 80s, early 90s. My Highschool was built in the early 80s to help take the load off of an overfilling Sprayberry HS... While I was in school, we climbed up to 3700 students, and they had to open two brand new schools in the area as well (Pope HS and one other one I don't remember the name of).

My graduating class was the smallest of the 4 years I was there, at only 840 students..

I think this is a common thing that happens when a school district is not able to build schools and fill them with staff fast enough to handle wildly growing areas.

Did you go to Lassiter HS?


I went to Norcross HS (Go Blue Devils!) and we had 2100 my freshman year, and a third of that was the freshman class. It's bigger now, but I'm not sure of the enrollment...

[Alan T]

Did you go to Lassiter HS?


I went to Norcross HS (Go Blue Devils!) and we had 2100 my freshman year, and a third of that was the freshman class. It's bigger now, but I'm not sure of the enrollment...

Yep, went to Lassiter!

[oliegirl]

Yep, went to Lassiter!

A really good friend of mine went there, she's a few years younger than me so she graduated in maybe 94 or 95...I was actually out there this weekend for the North Atlanta Soccer Association tournament - I don't go out that way very often and couldn't believe how much it's grown, and how many massive houses are being built out there! We must have seen 5 or 6 neighborhoods going up and the signs said things like "estate homes from the 800's"...

[Alan T]

PM me your friend's name.. I might have known them if they graduated in 94-95.. that was the same year as my sister (I think)...

And if it ends up as one of the girls I dated in HS, don't believe anything about me.. its not true. ;)

[Pumpy Tudors]

My high school only had two students, and I'm sure that there are pictures of both students dating all the way back to when I was born. I can't imagine going to a high school with any more than, say, five students.

[MikeVic]

My high school only had two students, and I'm sure that there are pictures of both students dating all the way back to when I was born. I can't imagine going to a high school with any more than, say, five students.

So it was you and Danny Glover going to the same high school?

[Pumpy Tudors]

So it was you and Danny Glover going to the same high school?
Danny Glover can kiss my ass.

[MikeVic]

Danny Glover can kiss my ass.

:eek:

[rkmsuf]

cheese

[Huckleberry]

Suburban high schools in Texas can get very large population-wise because of football. Basically the taxpayers will not approve a new high school well past the point when one becomes necessary because they don't want to split up the team. Even after Plano had built a second high school their original Plano High was up into the 6,500 student range on two campuses before they relented.

They now have two high schools over 5,000 and one over 4,500. Large city districts will usually try to keep single schools under 2,500.

[vex]

Maybe 40 at my school. And that was one of the largest ever.

[MikeVic]

Are we talking about a "class" picture, like in one grade? Because ~1000 was the total of my entire high school, not just grade 12 graduates.

[SackAttack]

Mine was around 2500 when I graduated in '99. One or two new high schools have since opened in the area, but I've been told by kids who are now seniors there that the Latino population at the school has grown significantly in the last 6 or 7 years, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if they've passed 3500 by now.

[Coder]

Did you go to Lassiter HS?


I went to Norcross HS (Go Blue Devils!) and we had 2100 my freshman year, and a third of that was the freshman class. It's bigger now, but I'm not sure of the enrollment...

Blue Devils? Georgia High Schools aren't the most innovative high schools are they? :)

I went to college in Tifton, and the local high school's nickname was also Blue Devils (Tift County).

[oliegirl]

Blue Devils? Georgia High Schools aren't the most innovative high schools are they? :)

I went to college in Tifton, and the local high school's nickname was also Blue Devils (Tift County).


Maybe so, but my Blue Devils would kick your Blue Devils ass! ;)

I still live about 15 minutes away from my high school so I follow the football team and take my son to games a couple times a season.

[MrBug708]

Long Beach Poly HS (that of the top athletic HS in the country) has over 5000 kids

[JonInMiddleGA]

Are we talking about a "class" picture, like in one grade? Because ~1000 was the total of my entire high school, not just grade 12 graduates.

Well, I was being facetious about the class picture part (since AFAIK they stop taking those somewhere around late elementary/early middle school these days), but with over 4k students, even with the dropout rate in Georgia, they've got to be looking at between 750 & 1000 seniors.

[korme]

We had about 2,000 kids in my HS when I graduated with a class of 404

[SackAttack]

We had about 2,000 kids in my HS when I graduated with a class of 404

404: Shorty Not Found

[sterlingice]

If this were Sim City, the game would be flashing a warning message every few seconds.

:D

SI

[sterlingice]

404: Shorty Not Found

Also, :D

SI

[lcjjdnh]

Elizabeth High School in NJ has more than 5,000 students. There was an article in the Star Ledger probably about a year or so ago talking about how they deal with having such a large school.

[Ben E Lou]

I went to college in Tifton, and the local high school's nickname was also Blue Devils (Tift County).Do the Devil Walk.


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<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mRKdabuW6_Y" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object>

[wade moore]

Suburban high schools in Texas can get very large population-wise because of football. Basically the taxpayers will not approve a new high school well past the point when one becomes necessary because they don't want to split up the team. Even after Plano had built a second high school their original Plano High was up into the 6,500 student range on two campuses before they relented.

They now have two high schools over 5,000 and one over 4,500. Large city districts will usually try to keep single schools under 2,500.

Yeah, this is a total non-story to me. Many, many high schools in Northern Virginia are at or close to this size. 10 years ago my high school had close to 4,000 students and we were far from the biggest school.

This is only big news to Atlanta folks and maybe a few others actually in a big city.

[Alan T]

Yeah, this is a total non-story to me. Many, many high schools in Northern Virginia are at or close to this size. 10 years ago my high school had close to 4,000 students and we were far from the biggest school.

This is only big news to Atlanta folks and maybe a few others actually in a big city.

I'm not sure if I follow this exactly.. several people (myself included) from Atlanta mentioned we had large schools around 4000 people even in the 1980s :)

Its not really news for us either... Not sure if this was like a backwards comment towards Atlanta or not :)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Yeah, this is a total non-story to me. Many, many high schools in Northern Virginia are at or close to this size. ... This is only big news to Atlanta folks and maybe a few others actually in a big city.

Perhaps, although I can think of at least one other group it might be news to:
The Virginia Department of Education.

Their own stats for 2006 show only one high school with over 4000 enrollment (Robinson Secondary in Fairfax Co.) and over 1200 of those are in grades 7 & 8, not 9-12 as the one being discussed here, leaving them with less than three thousand actually in high school.

Their numbers also show only one high school in the state of Virginia last year with over THREE thousand students in 9-12, Westfield HS in Fairfax, and it was 3,274.
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/dbpubs/Fall_Membership/2006/fm_sch_grade.xls

[wade moore]

That's pretty surprising to me. Things have changed then... My freshman class at Gar-Field High School had 1,000 people and my graduating class was over 700...

*shrug*.. maybe they're not as overcrowded as they once were...

[wade moore]

I'm not sure if I follow this exactly.. several people (myself included) from Atlanta mentioned we had large schools around 4000 people even in the 1980s :)

Its not really news for us either... Not sure if this was like a backwards comment towards Atlanta or not :)

Nah, I just remember someone (ben?) telling me before that Atlanta keeps pretty small public schools rather than the large monster schools that they have elsewhere.

[Alan T]

Nah, I just remember someone (ben?) telling me before that Atlanta keeps pretty small public schools rather than the large monster schools that they have elsewhere.

I think it depends on where the growth is. When I was in Highschool, people were moving to Cobb county by the truck loads.. there was no way the school system could build schools fast enough.. For instance, the elementary school I went to back in the early 80s, now wouldn't have been my school.. 7 new elementary schools have since opened in the last 27 years to cover the same area that one used to.

I think this is a common thing in any city experiencing alot of fast growth. I know the Cobb County school district tried to keep the Highschools manageable at about 1800-2500 students and would continue to build schools to keep it at that number, but the schools would usually balloon up well over 3500 waiting for the new school to be built.

I can't speak for the parts of the country that -choose- to have large 5000+ student schools though, but I can see exactly what happened in the area I grew up in.