HC sees little decrease in crowding following Frederick Douglass’ opening

Before Frederick Douglass’s opening, many HC teachers and students had high hopes for finding a quick solution to HC’s overpopulation. With HC’s population being stagnant at best, some are questioning whether or not Douglass’ opening really solved any of the problems they hoped it would.

HC Teacher and Academic Team Director James Bright expressed that, prior to Douglass’ opening, he anticipated a larger decrease in HC student population than was actually experienced and that, among the students HC did lose, there were outstanding students.

“I thought we’d lose more students than we did,” Bright said. “We lost [some] very good students and that is sad to me.”

In contrast to what many teachers and students at HC anticipated, there has been little change in how crowded the school is, however, the school’s population is expected to level off in the years ahead.

“I think our [population] will go down and then level off,” Bright said.

However, it is uncertain how much of HC’s overpopulation problem will be solved by Douglass’ opening, considering that, according to the Kentucky Department of Education, HC is almost 11% over its maximum capacity. Douglass would have to take on many more students in order for HC and other schools to be under their maximum capacities.

While HC did lose some students to Douglass, additional students have enrolled at HC, leaving the school with the same overcrowding that has, for many students, characterized their high school experience.

“We lost probably 100 to 200 kids, which is good for the school,” HC Dean of Students Demetrius Gay said, “but we’re still getting students coming in, so it kind of balances out.”

The academic team did not lose any members to Douglass and Bright expresses his hope for Douglass to establish their own academic team.

“I don’t think [we have lost any members],” Bright said, “we [could] have the chance of another team to compete against. That would be cool, but I don’t even know if they have one over there [yet].”

Although Douglass’ opening did not have a much of an effect on school population as many hoped for, it is clear that there will be a more visible decrease in HC population in years to come, even if many current HC students will never get to see this change.