By Jacob Spiegel

How will crowding at lunch be reduced?

Holman plans on adjusting the schedule next year to reduce crowding at lunches. “We have calculated that, and we decided that, we didn’t need to go to three lunches this year, but next year there will be three lunches with our population,” Holman said.

What is the high school administration doing in order to make space for the larger incoming classes?

Although there are approximately 1,950 students enrolled at the high school currently, each year that number will increase. With the building approaching capacity, both classroom and office spaces are in higher demand. “We’re in the process of moving out other organizations that use the high school so we can reclaim some of our classrooms for high school classrooms,” Headmaster Deborah Holman said. Organizations such as Brookline Early Education Program, or BEEP, and Adult Education are slowly being pushed out of Brookline Public Schools for this reason.

What will the school do in the upcoming years to address the population growth?

When the current class of freshmen are seniors, the school will likely reach its maximum population capacity, with no more space available to be reclaimed. Students will possibly use modular classrooms, which are the equivalent of portable classrooms, according to Holman. This would be a temporary solution until a permanent one is created. But, according to Holman, there are many options other than modular classrooms.

What are examples of these other options and what other questions arise from this?
“[We could] convert one of the gyms to classrooms,” Holman said. “[We could] rent some property or take some property from elsewhere around town that would be an adjacent site to Brookline High School. Do we for a permanent solution we envision Brookline High School using the Old Lincoln School? Or, the other thing that has been thrown around, which is a town decision, very much not a high school decision, is: does Brookline need to create a second high school?”