Castro Valley High School’s award-winning student newspaper. We are born to seek the truth!

CampusCommunityNewsSlider

Student body grows, struggles stay same

As with the start of every school year at CVHS, we start a bit bumpy. But this year has been more hectic, from an increased student body size of about 100 more students to almost 200 classes at max capacity. This year has physically been more crowded and tougher to navigate than ever.

This year upperclassmen have faced an increase of struggle in requesting schedule changes, due to the limited amount of AP classes and teachers. For example, many students did not make it into APEL this year, and some were even told that the classes had negative spaces in them. Another senior English class, ERWC, was also said to have no remaining spots for students. Lit and Film only had one spot left.

Several teachers have had to ask for more desks to compensate for their increased class sizes, or hope that someone drops the class to fit their Castro Valley Teachers Association (CVTA) contracts, which caps classes at 33 students.

Other students have stated that they were not given required classes, like government and economics, which are graduation requirements for all Trojans. Though this may have only been a scheduling issue, it doesn’t help that classes are already filled, making it impossible even to transfer in. 

Counselor Christopher Tsang stated, “The ‘over-enrollment’ and unavailability for the required classes of government and econ, are due to students enrolling in AP Economics and needing a semester of government to graduate.”

Classes such as APES and APAH are favorites at CVHS and are always full since they are each only taught by one teacher. This year though, students have felt that it was increasingly hard to get into these classes. Several seniors have stated that they didn’t get into APAH even though they applied as sophomores for their junior year, and again never got a spot in the class after applying as juniors for their senior year. Schedule makers seem to have skipped over their seniority and double seniority from previous applications. 

Tsang commented, “The students have more power than us [counselors] in creating schedules, the schedules are made by Aeries not by counselors. Counselors can only encourage you to take a certain class, and move you to available classes for your schedule when requested.” 

Freshmen also are having a similar struggle. This year a waitlist has been implemented for students trying to take vocal ensemble, CVHS’s zero-period choir class.

Understandably, counselors are overworked during this time of year with constant requests to fix student schedules, find solutions for student requests, and work to implement our newest policies within CVUSD.

That being said, students this year are struggling to figure out their schedules and graduation requirements, with no help from an increased student body size, and many maxed-out class periods.

School enrollment data:

  • 2021-22 school year: 2699 total students
  • 2022-23 school year: 2799 total students
  • 2023-24 school year: 2870 total students
  • 2024-25 school year: 2904 total students

3 thoughts on “Student body grows, struggles stay same

  • Erika Rayo

    This is such a crazy but prevalent issue for our school right now. I’ve never heard more students complain about their schedules any other year than now! I was a Link Leader this year, welcoming all of the incoming freshman into CVHS, and there were over 700 of them in the gym at the same time. Many of us had to sit on the floor as more and more kids started to poor in. It’s also super obvious while walking through the halls how bad student traffic has gotten- which I feel wasn’t as pressing of an issue the past couple years we have been here. I hope everyone has gotten their schedules sorted out and the counselors are catching a well deserved break!
    Epic story (and epic cover picture gavin newsom) ;D

  • Madison Lee

    I think it’s really stressful for teachers, staff, and students to try and navigate the beginning of an already stressful year and not have the classes they would like or need. I think seniors who don’t have their required classes are especially stressful, because they won’t be able to graduate. It’s always a nerve-wracking part of my year to get my schedule during registration, because I have to hope that everything works out the way it is. I have heard of people who signed up for classes and didn’t even get their second or third choice. I think CVTA contracts could be expanded to 35 students, if teachers agree. I hope in the future, CVHS can figure out a way to make most classes work out, whether that means prioritizing the upperclassmen first or prioritizing required classes before electives.

  • Grace Lopez

    this is so crazy that the school over enrolled students !!!!!! great story great gavin newsom.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *