Thirty students, and not an empty seat in the room.

Class sizes at Stroudsburg High have grown steadily for nearly a decade. Teacher furloughs, demotions, and a surprising uptick in enrollment has caused many electives and core classes to swell in size.

The first spikeAi??came in 2010, when 58 SHS staff members were furloughed, andAi??has only gotten worse this year with 13 more demotions.Ai??Ten years ago, a typical core class size was approximately 22 students; today, the number has stretched to about 28 students.

Not helping matters is thatAi??forty-four students enrolled at Stroudsburg High School unexpectedly this year. With more students and fewer teachers, class sizesAi??continue to increase.

ai???We lost two English teachers last year.ai??? said English teacher Ms. Ilene Austin. ai???The nine teachers in our English department had to absorb approximately 14 English classes.ai??? That’s aroundAi??300 students, and over 30 students in many classes.

ai???We donai??i??t want to have more than 30 kids in a class, but we deal with what we have,” said principal Mr. Jeffrey Sodl. ai???Class sizes could get larger if things stay the same and we stay in a financial crisis. We are unable to afford more staff members and more classes right now.”

While larger classes make it more difficult for each student to participate, Austin suggested that there is a the possibility that students can “benefit by getting more perspectivesai??? in a larger English class.

Research suggests that in larger classes, students are generally louder and more disruptive. Research also suggests that smaller classes allow for teachers to provide more individual help to students. Ai??Students in smaller classes have been shown to consistently perform better in all subjects than students in large classes.

Despite the hardships, Sodl is impressed with the way both staff and students have handled the class sizes.

ai???Our teachers do a great job with the number of students they have in a class,ai??? Sodl said.