Walking through the main hallway at Troy High, it’s almost impossible to avoid contact with other students. Whether walking to lunch or suffering the sixth hour rush, many students complain about the overpopulation of people at school.

During passing time, some say the hallways are congested, thus making some students take longer to walk from one class to another than if there were less people. This also makes lunch lines longer than previous years leaving limited time for some students, like junior Michael Young, to eat their lunch.
“When I try to go home at the end of the day or in the beginning of the day getting to class, I always have to push people to get to wherever I am supposed to go,” Young said. “There are too many people in the main staircase and the office entrances blocking my way, making it so much harder to even get to my other classes. Even at lunch time, it always takes me such a long time to get my food that I barely have any time left to eat.”

Right now there are 2,087 students attending Troy High, with a 17-1 student-to-teacher ratio. With this amount of students, some teachers are forced to share classrooms, and some travel between two schools.

English teacher Jimmy Morang, a former full-time teacher at Athens, now teaches at both Athens and Troy High.

“Traveling to two schools every day has its advantages and its disadvantages,” Morang said. “I enjoy being a part of two similar yet distinct communities and getting to teach students from all corners of the city. Because my time is split, however, I am not able to invest myself fully in either community. Driving from Troy to Athens each day also cuts down on the amount of time I am able to spend preparing lesson plans, which is inconvenient, but by no means an insurmountable difficulty.”

Science Teacher Sydney Barosko Believes the amount of students makes travelling through the halls during passing time inconvenient. Barosko also believes when science teachers share classrooms, it makes labs inconvenient since they can’t keep the labs up.

“When I try to run down the hall to get a drink or do anything during passing time … it’s practically impossible because my classroom is at the end of the hall,” Barosko said. ”I can’t imagine how hard it would be for students to get to class on time with all the congestion there is.”

On Monday, Nov. 11, the Clawson Board of Education trustees requested the Troy School District consider the possible annexation of the Clawson School District and a merger with the TSD.
In an email to the TSD community, Kerry Birmingham, director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives addressed the potential merger.

“It means that we will take the next several months to do a comprehensive feasibility study to determine the pros and cons of any proposed annexation,” Birmingham said. “There are numerous aspects of this complex situation that must be investigated before we can determine whether this is an idea worth further consideration.”

The school districts will bring this topic back to the community and all citizen input will be required to be voted on.

At Clawson High School, the student count for the 2018-2019 school year was 506 students. If these students were to be added to Troy High, the total student count would then be 2,593 students.
If this decision goes through, many Troy High students are concerned about the lack of lockers and space available.

“When I transferred here in sophmore year, I didn’t have a locker number or combination on my schedule. I haven’t ever had one,” senior Alissa Butcher said. “I don’t think that the school should try to have more students if we don’t have room now.”