The population is slowly but steadily growing at one of the county’s smallest high schools.

This school year, the population grew by 36 students. RHS population has been increasing since 2009 with a total of 85 new students in five years. Though these numbers may seem small, the increase represents a seven percent growth.

“I think the school population has increased because we offer so many programs here at RHS and all of our programs are very successful,” assistant principal Bradley Rohner said. “We are very competitive in our accomplishments a�� compared to other schools that have these programs.”

The county recommends that all English classes have at most 29 students in a class and all other classes have 33 students. Physical education classes do not have a county recommendation for size, but are usually the largest classes in the school.

Despite the larger population this year, about 95 percent of classes are under the county expectation, according to Rohner. The small class sizes are due to difficulties in class scheduling.

“Our school is hard to schedule in general because we are a small school and we have many programs. Sometimes, unfortunately, students have to pick between electives because a�� they might not be able to get into that elective,” Rohner said.

An increase in students allows the school to offer more electives and activities. With 36 additional students, there have been more opportunities for the sports teams to gain new players with different skills and mindsets.

“I think having a bigger population gives our sports team a lot more [kids] to choose from,” physical education teacher and boys’ tennis coach Frank Weaver said.

Despite benefits like easier class scheduling and stronger stronger sports teams, some students see drawbacks.

“It is more beneficial a�� for social [reasons],” senior Vicky Ganev said. “However it’s also not beneficial because a�� [there is] not enough space in the cafeteria.”and hallways for students during lunch.”