Hopwood posts lowest student population in past 10 yrs.

As of Friday, the reported 755-student population of Hopwood Junior High School is the lowest the school has seen in the past 10 years.

According to the Public School System enrollment data, the last time Hopwood’s population was this low was in school year 2004-2005 with 995 students.

Last year, Hopwood had 1,213 students. The year prior in 2012-2013, Hopwood had 1,192 and in 2011-2012 it had 1,258—its largest population in the last 10 years.

In 2010-2011 Hopwood had 1,216 students and in 2009-2010 it had 1,134 students.

Records indicate that 1,140 students were recorded for 2008-2009; 1,106 students for 2007-2008; 1,184 for 2006-2007; and 1,108 for 2005-2006, with Hopwood’s second lowest population in 10 years was 995 in 2004-2005.

In an interview, principal Jonas Barcinas noted how Hopwood has been “overcrowded” since he became principal in 2009 as well as the years prior to that.

“There were too many kids on the campus and sometimes problems do come about…issues from fighting to drugs [and] bullying,” he said.

While noting that even a small school may have these social problems, Barcinas expects an improvement from the population decrease in the classroom setting.

“It really helps our teachers breathe, and plan accordingly and have more engagement with kids,” he said.

Barcinas said more attention could be given to students by his teachers with classrooms of 25 or 20, compared to last year’s where there were 35 to 40 students per class.

“It becomes very difficult to attend to all the kids,” he said, noting how every student has different learning abilities.

“When you have many kids, it’s so hard to reach out to the lower achievers, the average achievers, the higher achievers. You need to be a dynamic teacher to ensure you are meeting the needs of everybody 100 percent,” he said.

While he noted that more students might mean more funding for a school, he said “the money is not going to help you if the class is overcrowded.”

Much of the decrease in population size may be attributed to the reconfiguring of several elementary schools on island into new middle schools, with San Antonio Elementary, for example, who used to send students to Hopwood for junior high, now a middle school.

According to Barcinas, Hopwood now only serves students coming from Garapan Elementary School, William S. Reyes Elementary School, and Oleai Elementary School.

He called the new middle school concept a “great idea” and he believes it would “spread the wealth of learning” and make the new middle schools more community-based as students live closer to their schools.

He also hopes for more interschool math or thespian competitions—for example—with the advent of more middle schools.