The first day of the Rocklin High 2016-2017 school year was quite a sight to take in. The sheer size of the student body alone was enough to bring out wide eyes and confusion, but nowhere was this more prevalent than with the incoming freshmen.

While new environments may seem especially grandeur for the first couple of weeks, there was something unusually different happening at Rocklin High this year. For everyone, it would be something that would transcend more than mere first-day nerves.

As Principal Davis Stewart explains, “In the last ten years, this has been the largest class… we grew by almost 150 students.” That puts this year’s incoming Freshmen class size at 562 students.

The main reason for this increase comes primarily from a relatively new population of Rocklin Elementary school students zoned to enter Rocklin High instead of Whitney.

As Principal Stewart explains, “For the last three years, attendance was lower than Whitney High School, and what they wanted to do was bring those into balance.”

However, as of this year, Whitney High School records barely over 1900 students, while Rocklin has an overall attendance of about 2,050. This is a wavering imbalance that has had a noticeable impact on the burgeoning size of incoming classes for the past couple of years.

Regardless, in almost every noticeable fashion, this year’s large class size has inspired more feelings of anticipation and optimism than any negative despair.

Contrary to some beliefs, the class sizes at Rocklin High will not be increasing.

“We were allowed to hire five additional teachers for growth,” says Principal Stewart, an accommodation that will prevent an otherwise overcrowded learning environment for students from occurring.

There is one place where size truly is at the forefront as well, and the student body of Rocklin High looks to be in the works for greater presence at school events of all facets.

Even with such a vast class, a sizeable gap still exists between the potential for split-rallies. According to Principal Stewart on the idea of this occurring, he assures us, “There will not. The magic number there is right around 2,200, but we are at around 2,050 and we’re not expected to grow anymore.”

All of this is fortunate news for the projected path of Rocklin High School, where a large and unified group of students appear to be on the forefront of a legacy that is truly and fittingly one word. Big.