By Thania Rubio

One issue that many teachers and students agree on is the over-crowdedness of the hallways around the school. There are areas that are just jammed with students trying to make their way to class, hopefully on time.

Many would argue that any number of students that exceed the planned capacity of a classroom or a school building impacts the quality of instruction and learning because of the stresses that it places on access to teachers and services. Some classes are filled with many students, usually with more than 20 students in a class.

Most students agree that this seems to be one of the most overcrowded school years PHS ever had. Passaic is considered a medium sized city, with a population of 70,868 people and 14 constituent neighborhoods, Passaic is the 12th largest community in the state New Jersey. There are a lot of people in this city, and most have children. Those children go to school and PHS is the only high school in this city.

Overcrowding is a real, day-to-day issue in PHS, but also in a significant number of other school districts. School boards and administrators, down to principals and teachers, are affected by this issue too. Statistics show that crowded schools have a negative impact on reading achievement. But what can be done? The school is only so big, there is no way to expand the school that exists. And every year the student population increases.

It seems as though the crowds are here to stay, because there is no immediate way to change the population of this school. However, there are some ways to make this issue better, if we all participate. Students should not just hang around talking to friends in the hallways. They should go straight to class. We are here to learn, let’s get to class and learn. Also, using the correct staircase and not blocking busy areas will help the traffic problems.

Lastly, working hard and passing classes will help. How will passing help the crowded problems? Senior Anthony Sanchez said, “This school is overpopulated, especially when students are retaking classes that they should have passed.” Retaking a class makes a normal sized class larger because that student is taking a seat in the failed class as well as a new class.

There are some aspects of the crowded hallways that cannot be changed by anyone at this time. However, if we, as students, all work together we can have a positive impact on how things run in this school.