To the Visor:

I would like to add some pertinent information that Joey Thomas could have included in his article, "Increased enrollment leads to crowding in halls and lunchroom."

First, there are only 24 more students in the school than there were last year.  Twenty-four additional students are not the problem in the hallways and at lunch.  At Hoban's highest enrollment, there were over 1,200 in a building that did not include the Faraday Wing and the Nolan Concourse. Sarah Kalbus' comment about too many people standing in groups and talking is a more accurate reflection of reality.  Thanks, Sarah!

Secondly, I want to share a significant reason for reducing our lunch periods from five to three and for the presence of study halls in the Foley Commons.  Two years ago we made a major decision to make school computers more available for daily student use.  To do that we had to change the schedule that placed almost all study halls during the lunch periods.  We needed to spread the study halls throughout the school day so that more students would be able to access computers for assigned schoolwork.  Changing the lunch schedule allowed us to do that.  In my opinion, it is more important to have computers available for student work than to have extra walking space during lunch.

Also, having study halls in the Foley Commons helps free teachers and classrooms for other uses.  For example, an additional computer lab and a distance-learning lab now occupy rooms that were used for regular classes last year.  New equipment has recently arrived, so you should see the distance-learning lab in room 225 soon.

In the future, I encourage your writers to seek as many facts as you can in writing articles.  Getting lots of good information will make your writing even more informative and useful to your readers.

Respectfully,

--Brother Kenneth Haders, C.S.C.

President