A lottery for spots in the freshmen class of 2011 is scheduled for February 25, and prospective students will be notified of the results the following week.  Approximately 120 students will not get in as the school strives to reduce enrollment and lower class sizes. 

“We’re looking for about 400 students, and we’ve had around 520 applications for the freshmen class.  We’re going to have kids that don’t get in,” said Principal Michael Grove.

“The last three classes we’ve taken in are the three biggest the school has ever had,” said Grove.  “Three years ago we started with under 1500 students.  This year is the biggest ever at around 1640 students.  We’re maxed out in terms of capacity; we’re as big as we’re going to get.” 

According to Grove, SDA’s capacity is about 1600 students.  “We’re out of space now.  We’re using every classroom, and having teachers share rooms during different periods,” said Grove.

The four-by-four schedule is the top reason for students choosing to come to SDA, according to Grove.  Both academies, CCA and SDA, have increasingly gained the interest of students, causing the schools to change their recruitment strategies. 

 “We toned down our recruiting, and LCC ramped theirs up,” said Grove.  “We’ve tried to downplay [SDA] a little bit because we knew we were going to hit this crunch.  It’s hard because I don’t like it that we’re at this point.  The district wanted more students to go to LCC.”

 The school is also cutting back on the number of transfer students enrolling.  “The only sophomore, junior, and senior students we are going to let in are siblings of currently enrolled students.  There will be no transfer lottery like other years,” said Grove.