The current freshman class, the Class of 2025, is the biggest freshman class MHS has ever had since it’s opening. There are currently 297 enrolled freshman at Mead.

Principal Dr. Brian Young said, “This is the biggest freshman class we have had at Mead High School.”

When he was the principal at Frederick, he had even larger incoming classes of students. He said, “There were a few years that Frederick had over 300 students [in an incoming class].”

Dr. Young said that the high number of current freshman correlates with the number of Coal Ridge and Mead Middle and elementary school students, since those are major feeder schools for the Mead High School community.

“If you look at all the great things that we have going on here, everybody wants to be at Mead [High]. The numbers are only going to keep going up, year after year,” Dr. Young said.

He believes that future freshman classes are going to increase every year.

Previous attendance clerk Ms. Salaz said that the Class of 2025 contains about the same number of students ditching class as any other freshman class she’s interacted with in the past. The high numbers have not made it any easier for freshman to ditch their classes, especially since freshman don’t have the opportunities upperclassmen have, such as claiming they have an off block.

She said that those who do ditch are almost always the same students. Ms. Salaz usually knows who should be in which class and what block they should be there.

Even with over 50 more freshman in the Class of 2025 compared to the Class of 2024 last year, she’s able to keep an eye on students.

“[Attendance is] actually easier with freshmen than it is sophomores, juniors, and seniors because they have off campus privileges,” she said.