Overcrowding at Lincoln East seems to be a problem this year. East is now at the all time highest population, and it is only growing more. According to the Lincoln Public Schools district statistics and evaluations page, the enrollment count for the 2015-2016 school year at East sat at 1,748 students, ranking East as the 5th largest high school in the city, only ahead of Northeast. The year 2016-2017 brought slight growth with an additional 150 students, making the overall population 1,892 students, this time surpassing Southwest to claim the 4th largest school in the city. As for the 2017-2018 year, East surpassed 2,000 students for the first time ever, marking the enrollment at 2,037 students, clearly a trend of growth is present here at East. This year we are estimated to hold over 2,200 students. This means that in the last four years of enrollment data, the population total of East has grown in about 500 students in a very short period of time, making it difficult for adjustments to be made. The size of East is a grand total of 386,000 feet, which is slightly 40,000 less square feet than the most populated high school in Lincoln, which is Lincoln High School standing at 420,000 square feet, as well as holding about 200 more students than Lincoln East. East is a small school, which was clearly not meant to hold an exponential amount of students and faculty members. But the hallways aren’t the only problem. Overcrowding is also affecting traffic on the neighboring streets of the school, and even the sidewalks as students must now scan their identification upon entering the building. Certainly Lincoln East is growing, and only getting larger, as enrollment number continue to increase. It’ll be interesting to watch as the culture of crowding around East High continues to change.