JFK has 200 more students than last year

by Krystal Paco

Guam - The Home of the Islanders is more crowded than usual this school year. According to John F. Kennedy High School assistant principal Asherdee Rosete, the student count is up to 2,500 - 200 more than usual. Rosete says students may have experienced overcrowded classrooms the first few weeks of school, but have since leveled out.

She told KUAM News, "Initially you'll have a large number of students who are in a classroom and then when the counselors see the overloads based on the printouts, they start leveling out students. So Monday this week, all classes were leveled off and we did see a couple of courses where we're going to need to offer additional sections."

Rosete says some teachers have volunteered to teach during prep periods, which is cheaper than hiring additional teachers. Rosete suspects the increase in the student population is due to off-island and private school transfers as well as students who are out of district.