Buffalo Island Central experienced a problem many schools would enjoy having at the start of  the 2017-18 school year. There was an increase of eight percent in the high school student body.  Due to this drastic increase in students, it put everyone in a scramble to fill the classrooms with enough desks and books to begin the year.

While new students bring many great things to the school, such as more funding and a much desired increase in growth, finding ways to meet the needs of this larger student body brings many difficulties to the district.

School Guidance Counselor, Mrs. Mandy McFall, explained that it was difficult to arrange the class schedules for so many students when some classes seemed to already be bursting at the seams.

“It just made things slower when we started the new school year. It’s hard finding spots for those kids, especially when you think about things like whether or not they participate in band, basketball, choir, and other things,” said McFall.

Perhaps the best thing about this student growth, is that it is an indication of many successes at BIC. Much of this student increase seems to be due to the academic test scores BIC has developed throughout the years.

“My dad and I were looking at the schools’ education and the test scores and we decided it would be better for me to be here, education wise,” said junior, Taylor Cole.

While moving schools was as simple as moving across the county for some students, the change in atmosphere was more dramatic for some. One of these stories seems to be quite unique. Carlos Banos moved to BIC from Renosa, Tamulipas, Mexico. He experienced a drastic change in his school day going from “night shift” to BIC’s early morning hours. Carlos was accustomed to going into school in the afternoon and getting out at 9 p.m.

“We had approximately 30 classrooms and we had two shifts, one group in the morning and another in the evening. There were about 2000 students,” said Renosa.

While adding a large number of new students may prove to be difficult, it is well worth the growing pains that BIC has to endure.