Back in class

HHS freshman class sets record

Kids are once again donning their backpacks and books for the beginning of a new school year, and a record number are doing so for the first time at Hahnville High School.

The 448-student HHS freshman class is the largest the school has ever had, bringing the school’s projected total population to more than 1,500 for the new school year.

“As far as I can go back…this is the largest incoming class I can remember,” said Ken Oertling, HHS principal.

The school has hired additional teachers to cover the influx of students and to keep class sizes small, Oertling said.

New teacher hires included English and math interventionists to make sure the 9th graders do not fall behind.

Students and parents across the parish who are looking forward to the new school year will see only a few minor changes to this year’s calendar, including a slightly shorter Christmas holiday and spring break falling on different days of the week.

The Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee sent out more than 10,000 emails last fall requesting feedback on the proposed school calendar. They received a record number of responses – 164 – with the majority of them asking for fall break to be around Halloween and for Christmas break to be longer.

“We got a nice number of comments,” said Superintendent Rodney Lafon during a meeting on the calendar. “I think the calendar committee did a good job on this.”

The original calendar proposed by the committee moved fall break to the second week in October to break up the time between Labor Day and Thanksgiving more evenly, but an overwhelming percentage of responses wanted the holiday to remain the week of Halloween. Public Information Coordinator Regina McMillan said changing the dates back to Halloween should not cause any problems.

The calendar for the new year also has students getting eight days off for the winter holidays, as opposed to the 10 days they received in 2010-2011. McMillan said that a lot of factors went into the decision to make Christmas break slightly shorter, but the main reason is the day of the week that Christmas falls on, which is a Sunday. She said it is normal for the length of the break to fluctuate a little each year.

“(The planning committee) tries to put as many days in as they can between Christmas and the new school year,” McMillan said after the committee revised the calendar. “The semesters need to be as evenly numbered as possible so that factors in as well.”

Spring break of 2012 will run from Monday, April 2 through Monday, April 9. This year, Spring break went from Thursday-Wednesday because of state testing dates.

“Because of testing dates set by the state, Thursday, April 21 was the first date available to have off for the Easter Holidays in 2011,” McMillan said. “Typically, our Easter Break has been a Monday-Monday or Friday-Friday. Educationally, it is desirable not to split a week with a holiday.”

One thing that students and teachers can be excited about is the school year ending before Memorial Day.

“Most years the (calendar planning) committee members have requested that students and teachers both end school before Memorial Day,” McMillan said. “Therefore, family members can be home or have off with other family members that have off from their jobs for this holiday.”