by Liz Barton

The STA class of 2018 is smaller than the classes of ‘16 and ‘17 due to space and maintaining current enrollment of 600. The incoming freshmen will have around 135 students, the number of seniors graduating. Director of admissions Roseann Hudnall said that although there was not a decrease in interest, due to the strategic plan the administration was forced to keep the class smaller than the last two years.

According to Hudnall, the classes of 2016 and 2017 have been bigger for a couple reasons.

“We wanted to build new advisories, but the class of 2017 became too big,” Hudnall said. “This year we wanted to keep the diversity and variety, but we knew we couldn’t accept as many.”

If STA were to accept another class with 150-160 students, the school would be out of space, with no more classrooms available and no space for lockers, according to STA president Nan Bone. Over the last 10 years the freshmen class has steadily increased, reaching the highest number ever at 168 students last year. The expected number of freshmen from the class of 2018 is 34 fewer than last year, according to registrar and academic scheduler Kathy Walters.

However, the number that showed up this previous year was higher than estimated, according to Hudnall. The 85 percent rule is used when determining the number to accept each year. The administration accepts more than STA can take because only 85 percent will show up on the first day. This rule does not always work, as shown by the 90 percent appearance of the class of ‘17.

“No matter how careful and how accurate we think admissions are, there are always people that move out and people who move in,” Hudnall said. “So we don’t really know until the first day of school how many people are going to be here. We have to take a really educated guess.”

The incoming freshmen class comes from 25 different schools and 34 different zip codes, with fewer students from public schools. The biggest feeder schools are St. Peter’s School and Visitation. The biggest rise of students are from St. Elizabeth and St. Thomas More, according to Hudnall. Incoming freshman and current eighth grader at St. Peter’s School Audrey Davis believes the decrease is a good thing.

“I think it is a good opportunity to know more girls really well. I don’t think it will be much different from this year’s class,” Davis said.

The strategic plan is set for now, according to Hudnall, with no plans to increase the average class size. The administration wants to keep the student to teacher ratio to around 18-1 and keep the classes on the smaller size. The administration has everything under control and will change the strategic plan when needed, according to Hudnall.

“The administration knows what they are doing, they have a well thought out plan, that includes the 85 percent rule and they do a darn good job,” Hudnall said.