According to Forbes, the average high school in the U.S. has 850 students, Berkeley High School has 3,200 students. That size is an asset to BHS, by allowing for a wide range of opportunities like classes, clubs, and programs. The BHS website states, “BHS is unique in that it is the only public high school in a community of over 100,000. Drawing from a diverse racial, ethnic and socioeconomic population, students embrace a broad spectrum of people and ideas.” While there are many advantages to having a large student body, there is also one big disadvantage: overcrowding. This is often seen at BHS in limited class availability to students and a limited number of classrooms for teachers.
Many teachers at BHS have to switch classrooms throughout the day to account for the classroom shortage. Kate Purnell, a BHS English teacher, starts her day in one classroom for periods one through four, then switches to a shared room for her prep period, and then moves to a different classroom for period six. Purnell said there are slight inconveniences such as making sure that she always brings glue sticks or highlighters as she travels between classrooms.
However, there were also bigger issues associated with not having a permanent classroom, such as finding ways to decompress within a day, without having her own space. “Sometimes when you’re speaking to so many people all day, you sometimes need a completely quiet space to kind of decompress. But you don’t fully get that option when you’re sharing,” Purnell said.
Purnell notes how not having her own classroom affects her day.
“Originally, sharing a classroom with colleagues during the prep time seems good at first, but then sometimes it can be distracting because you don't have just your own space and quiet time in your own supplies around,” Purnell said. “The logistics (of not having her own classroom) eats into my prep time for sure,” Purnell said. Purnell notes that the work that she doesn’t get done in her prep period she has to take home. If a teachers' prep period is taken over by logistics of moving classrooms, those teachers have to take more work home.
According to Academic Choice Vice Principal Keldon Clegg, there are many factors that go into determining these schedules. For example, according to Clegg, teachers who have leadership positions within BHS are more likely to share classrooms. This is because teacher leaders have two periods in their day where they are not teaching students — their prep period and their release period — meaning they don’t necessarily need a classroom during those two periods. Moreover, part time teachers are most likely to share classrooms. Teacher turnover also contributes to the difficulties in teacher-classroom scheduling. Over the summer, 15 teachers changed the hours they would be willing to work, and while that is a small percentage of teachers, these changes create ripples, drastically changing the classroom schedules. “I know folks are frustrated (by the scheduling). We hear you... we’re trying our best and we work nonstop,” Clegg said.
With these overcrowding issues plaguing BHS this year, BHS' administration are looking for solutions. “One of the big ones we're still looking at for next year is offering more programming zero and seventh period. So one of the things we note is a lot of students work or have commitments after school, and we have teachers who are interested in teaching before or after school,” Clegg said. Another option that was considered was the creation of a new building called the S Building, which was going to be built where the softball field is. However, that plan fell through for many reasons, one of which being it wasn’t going to have enough of a positive impact to justify the expense. “The most recent proposal I've seen is to take the current parking lot that we have, turn that into a new building, and literally build a bridge over from Berkeley High to there. That would be a whole other building with multiple floors with more classrooms that are in it,” Clegg said.
Another option that was discussed was looking into portables, however that plan was also scrapped because it would be incredibly expensive and would limit basketball court space. The other option administration is currently looking into is limiting the amount of teachers that work part time. “We said no to a number of teachers saying they wanted to come back part time in the morning. We have no legal obligation to give them the morning. But it does make the relationship poor. And we don't wanna schedule teachers when they don't wanna teach unless there's no other solution,” Clegg said.
Another key element to overcrowding at Berkeley High is students not being able to get the classes they wanted. Riley Pattison, a senior in BIHS, transferred from Acadian High School to BHS as a junior. When she transferred to BHS, she tried to take AP Biology, but wasn’t able to get into the class after a month of school. “I got in and basically, since it was so late (in the year), I had to do a month's worth of homework and classwork in two days. And then I took a test right after that. So it's just really chaotic for me and my teacher,” Pattison said.
Pattinson felt the ramifications of transferring in late for the rest of the year. “That first unit was a lot of introduction to what the program was. So (there was) a lot of pretty fundamental biology I missed, which was kind of confusing because I'd ask questions and they're like, ‘oh, we've learned this in the first unit,’” Pattinson said.
Pattinson’s experience is not unique at BHS. Venice Hockey, a junior in BIHS, wanted to take International Baccalaureate (IB) Economics, but wasn’t able to. To be able to still be on track for the IB Diploma, Hockey had to take IB Computer Science, a class that she didn’t want to take. Ravi Campopiano wanted to take ceramics his junior year, but wasn’t able to. “I am now stuck with IB film year one, which I just didn't really wanna take ... it's a lot of work,” Campopiano said. While it is naturally very frustrating when students don’t get their first choice in classes, it’s important to note that BHS can’t go forward with a master schedule unless at least 70% of students have their first choices in classes. This past year, according to Clegg, BHS administration hit 80 percent. Other factors of students not getting the classes they want are students not checking for the class’ prerequisites or having too few students sign up for a class. "It's hard for folks to get an understanding of the big picture here, which is that most students got all the classes they had asked for. And most students are in a classroom with a caring teacher who loves them, wants them to do well in a classroom size that's under a hundred and fifty five. So just know that generally things are going well, and that doesn't mean things are alright," said Clegg.
Clegg believes that issues with overcrowding stem from inaccuracies in student number projections for the 2025-26 school year. However, it is unclear what the initial numbers given to the BHS administration were. Jill Hoogendyk, the Associate Superintendent of Educational Services, said there has been “steady enrollment at (BHS) over the course of the last several years. It's pretty much about plus or minus fifty students, the same numbers that we had from pre-pandemic times, which is not necessarily the case for our overall BUSD enrollment.” Data provided by the superintendent’s office supported this claim.
However, Hoogendyk acknowledges that the felt experience at BHS is often different from the enrollment data. “I think that the experience felt again from my communication with the Berkeley High administrative team ... is that we're talking about a subset of classes at Berkeley High that were a little a little overenrolled,” said Hoogendyk. “I think you have to realize that on any given day, there are about six hundred and forty sections (classes) ... and some small percentage of those have higher class sizes,” said Hoogendyk.
According to Hoogendyk, it’s also important to know that there are benefits to increases in enrollment numbers. “We're excited that the enrollment is growing because one important thing is that enrollment is tied to what's called average daily attendance, which is how the state funds us. And so the growth is great because that means more dollars coming into BUSD,” Hoogendyk said.
A likely adjustment the administration will make in regards to these issues with overcrowding and overenrollment will be adjustments in the bell schedule — for example, an eight period day. According to Clegg, teachers are constantly creating new proposals for bell schedules and working with administration to create these changes. According to the National Education Policy Center the bell schedule was first introduced in 1908, and Clegg believes that it’s no longer functional. “I think the system's gonna end up changing in the near future too. And hopefully, that makes us change as well. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't have a new bell schedule or a new calendar of the week at the very least in ten years to try to offset what's happening,” Clegg said. Hoogendyk agreed that the district will likely be making a recommendation to the board for the 27-28 school year regarding changes to the bell schedule.