The halls of Chamblee are packed to the brim following redistricting that brought some 300 new students to the school.

The 2016-2017 school year is the school’s most crowded yet, with 1646 students trying to navigate the halls. Natural growth within the district, combined with the Cross Keys redistricting plan, caused the population of Chamblee to swell.

“It’s a significant jump,” said Assistant Principal Gail Barnes.

The redistricting proposal was approved on March 7, 2016. At the time, an estimated 232 students would be transferred to Chamblee.

Returning Chamblee students were shocked by the increased congestion in the hallways and stairwells, and were met by some altered school policies.

“I hate the changes,” said Le Changivy, a junior.

Her biggest complaint was the altered lunch schedule.

“I don’t have time to eat all my food,” said Changivy.

However, it was mere chance that many policy updates coincided with the influx of new students. Their arrival was not a factor in deciding most of this year’s changes.

“A lot of the changes were going to happen regardless,” said Barnes.

Using the tardy policy as an example, Barnes said the reason for the change was to maximize instructional time.

Some school functions do, however, need to be reworked as a result of redistricting. Both the administration and the Student Government Association are examining ways to keep schoolwide pep rallies, like the one for homecoming, viable, as the entire student body is no longer allowed in the gym. The primary reason is that too many students in one room would be dangerous in an emergency.

“No one wants to break the fire code,” said Barnes.

Another notable effect of a larger student body was the shift back to four lunches, following the previous one and a half school years’ three lunch schedule. Whereas some 500 students had B lunch at the beginning of the school year, the revised lunch schedule balanced all four lunches down to about 380 students.

The administration has been working with the county to prepare for the influx in students since last year. Language support, transportation, and textbooks are examples of areas that required renewed attention.

“Moving schools is hard, regardless,” said Barnes, “even when it’s a family choice, which in this case it was not.”

From a security standpoint, the largest concern remains ensuring external doors stay locked and closed to outsiders.

“I treat it the same way it was when we had less students last year,” said Student Resource Officer Johnny Burnette. “We’ve got to make sure those doors are closed.”

In spite of concerns about potential cultural misunderstandings leading to conflict, the transition has been a seamless one for Burnette.

“Everything’s been great so far, and I foresee it being that way, because everybody’s getting along fine,” he said.

The new school year also brought a wave of scheduling issues that the counseling department had to resolve.

“It has been fairly chaotic, but August usually is,” said Counselor Lydia Adle.

The department worked diligently to solve any problems the new school year posed, staying as late as 7 p.m. to adjust schedules and register students.

Due to the increase in volume, the counselors were much more critical about approving class changes this year; their primary focus was on making sure every student was taking seven classes and on track to graduate.

“We focused on correcting scheduling errors first and level changes second,” said Head Counselor Tinikia Jones.

Third in line for changes were students who were not placed in classes they had signed for because the classes were at capacity.

“Considering the increase of students and families, plus two new counselors and a new registrar, I think we handled things very well,” said Jones. “We definitely could feel the effects of a much larger student body, but through teamwork we’ve been able to assist in getting the school year off to a good start.”

A new normal is settling in at Chamblee as everyone adjusts to the changes of the 2016-2017 school year. The Chamblee family has grown, but the school is still the same in many respects.

According to Barnes, Chamblee’s goal is still to help students grow from wherever they start until graduation.

“We want to serve students the best we can,” she said.