West Brunswick Population Growth

LeAnna MIntz and Karen Bonifacio

West Brunswick has been in continual growth since 2014 and currently has the most students the school has ever seen.

With the sudden increase of 70 students from last year, class sizes have increased. The administration is in the process of hiring two new teachers in the spring semester to try and resolve this issue.

“Classes are more crowded than they have been in the past which is I think a part of the issue as well,” said Principal Rhonda Benton, “When you have a class of let’s just say twenty verses a class of twenty-six that makes a big difference in a class.”

With more people, violence can increase. Students being closer to each other in their classes, the cafeteria, and even the hallways can make some students agitated easily.

“We’ve had 3 fights which is not a large number. We had 9 total last year. To say it all happened so quickly within a week and a half span is probably why people think there has been a huge spike,” said Benton.

Accommodations are being made to try and make life a little easier at West Brunswick. It just takes time.

“I call it growing pains,” said Benton, “We don’t have enough tables in the cafeteria so we’re trying to order tables, its those types of things, trying to meet all the needs because we didn’t expect this kind of growth.”