With Hayes welcoming a total of almost 1800 students back into the school this year, it leads students and staff to question whether the district needs to expand once again.
A bond issue was passed by 61 percent of Delaware voters in 2013, approving $3.6 million to go towards expansions and improvements within the district.
In 2015, Hayes renovated its outdoor sports complex, including installing artificial turf in the Cornell stadium.
Since then, 20 classrooms have been added, creating the Rowland Center with the last expansion in 2016.
“It is important to remind everyone of what was added because it was so long ago,” said Heidi Kegley, the Superintendent of Delaware City Schools.
School administrators have continued to offer ways to reduce the number of students within Hayes during the day.
“We’re trying to do things to meet the needs of [the] numbers,” Rex Reeder, the assistant principal at Hayes said. “But you can’t speak to the future.”
One of these methods includes the ability for upperclassmen to leave the school building during their lunch period for open lunch. For students who drive, having a break from school can be a positive experience during the day. Hayes has four lunch periods in total, which allows a flow of students coming and going throughout the middle of the school day.
“It rewards our students to get out of here for a while, which helps alleviate overcrowding,” Hayes principal Ric Stranges said.
College Credit Plus (CCP) classes are also an option for students to leave Hayes, allowing them to get a head start on college classes while still enrolled in high school.
This year, 189 students at Hayes are taking CCP classes. Of those, 95 students have shortened school days, either coming in late or leaving early for their classes.
However, the majority of students are not enrolled in CCP classes. As such, most high school level and AP classes can only be taken at specific times throughout the day, so many students have to choose what classes they would instead take.
Delaney Nelson, a senior at Hayes, said she couldn’t take the Intro to The College Admissions Process class because AP Calc BC is only offered for the same period.
“It would have been a really helpful class for me to take,” Nelson said. “I was hoping to take it, but if you’re taking AP Calc, you can’t.”
Additionally, Hayes has discontinued 18 classes for the 2023-2024 school year. Most of the classes were cut because fewer than 20 people signed up to take the class. Seven of the dropped classes were AP courses designed to push students and prepare them for college-level classes.
Teachers are also affected by the overcrowding in classrooms. Some teachers may find a lack of connection with their pupils as another downside to the high-capacity classes.
“I would have classes of 31-32 students,” said Nikki Arnette, an English teacher at Hayes. “It’s harder to get around to every student when that’s the case.”
While Delaware continues to get farther from its small-town feel, increases in residents and student enrollment rates create a question of whether the Delaware City School District needs to expand.
Other school districts such as Olentangy continue to expand and grow with their rising numbers. They continue to build new schools in their district, with the addition of Berlin Middle School opening for the 2023-2024 school year. Olentangy is also building a new elementary school set to open the following year. With what has been built already, Olentangy has 26 schools, not including its preschools.
Delaware City Schools is not yet nearing the total number of students enrolled within the Olentangy district. However, Delaware is continuously growing in its number of residents. New housing developments are being built and proposed projects lead to more children enrolling in Delaware City Schools.
Projections of class enrollment, along with the expansions to the city of Delaware, were brought up at a city council meeting last month. In attendance was Adam Haynes, a history teacher at Hayes and a member of the city council, who declined to comment on the matter.
To have another expansion, the Board of Education would need to have another bond levy placed. A bond levy gives the district funds strictly used on capital costs.
Then, voters would have to approve it before they could start any work on expanding the district.
“We appreciate the support of the community [for] the most recent additions that were done at all of our buildings across the district,” Kegley said.
