This year the halls and stairwells of Bishop Noll are much more crowded than last year, as many students have noticed. Everywhere students turn, new faces have been mixed in with those of familiar classmates. This has to do with a number of reasons, all of which are benefiting Noll.
Student enrollment rose for the 2011-12 year.
“Current enrollment is 478 [students], said principal Colleen McCoy-Cejka. “We had to wait-list sophomores because we could not schedule in one more [sophomore] student.”
The freshmen class of 2015 has 135 students, enrolled and is the largest since 2001. “Our goal is to retain students who come so that we have larger graduating classes,” McCoy-Cejka said.
Another reason enrollment has gone up is because of Indiana’s installment of the Choice Scholarship Program, a program in which the state provides vouchers or scholarships to eligible students to attend a private school of their choice.
“We believe this program has helped our enrollment,” said McCoy-Cejka. With the help of the Choice Scholarship Program–as well as the good name of Bishop Noll–has brought 28 new transfer students to BNI.
“[The Choice Scholarship Program] is benefiting students whose families might have not been able to receive a Catholic education,” said McCoy-Cejka. “That’s the important thing: Noll is getting more great kids–it’s a win-win situation.”