Lincoln Southwest High School has 2,177 students, ranking tenth in Nebraska in enrollment. Of the ten most enrolled Nebraska high schools, Southwest has the third highest student to teacher ratio: 19:1. Southwest is also the second newest school among the tenth most enrolled. 

With 2,177 students in a school in only its 22nd year, do students know how big their school is? Do they know how many classrooms Lincoln Southwest has?

“I’d have to guess 70 classrooms,” senior Alex Ourada said. “I count 20 (in the B200 forum), so it’s probably more like 100, because you have upstairs, downstairs, E-wing, and D-wing.”

Alex Ourada has spent all four of his high school years at Lincoln Southwest, but what about a student who is only in their first?

“I don’t know, I’d guess at least a couple hundred classrooms,” freshman Logan Lambrecht said. “Probably somewhere around 350.” 

Lincoln Southwest has 97 classrooms, so some students came a little closer than others when using the scale of their high school. Has Lincoln Southwest grown too quickly in the student body for its own good, especially in a school where teachers only have classes three out of four blocks, but students still outnumber them 19:1?

“There have most likely been negative effects on the school from it growing so quickly,” executive secretary Mrs. Abigail Traynowicz said. “But I wouldn’t say they’ve resulted in negative repercussions.”

Though the student body continues to grow, the faculty and students continue to adapt to the growing needs of the school. The school has repurposed computer labs and discussion forums into classrooms.