Lincoln was staffed in February of 2025 for the 2025-26 school year based on a Portland State University population research projection of 1,597 students, according to Lincoln principal Peyton Chapman.

Currently, 1,665 students are enrolled at Lincoln, almost seventy more than expected. 

Chapman noted that each teacher at Lincoln should have no more than 160 students total. Because of the increase in enrollment this year, some teachers are over capacity with 200 students, and classrooms are cramped. 

Some students, as well as faculty, are having concerns about their classroom needs.

Steve Scoville teaches six health classes, and his class sizes range from 30 to 39 students. His concerns for the school year include meeting the needs of each of his students as the year progresses.

“I suspect that [student support] will become a problem pretty soon for some of the more detailed assignments,” said Scoville. “I think I’ll probably struggle giving feedback to everyone in class just because of the student numbers.”

There is less space in the classroom per student, there’s often more noise, and more unfamiliar faces. 

Sophomore Abbie Schubert has 38 students in her health class and 36 in her English class.

“When there’s more people, especially people I don’t know, I don’t feel as comfortable sharing, so participation in class has been a bit harder this year,” said Schubert.

Lincoln admin is working on reducing class sizes and communicating with the district to get more staff members.

 “The district is looking at our enrollment counts and our staffing. If it holds that we actually have 1,665 kids here, then we would earn about two more Full-Time Equivalent[FTE] teachers,” said Chapman.

Chapman added that this problem of understaffed teachers won’t be fixed overnight. 

“Whether or not they have it to give to us at this point is the problem,” said Chapman. “The district has talked about moving teachers from schools where there are fewer students than what they were predicted to have, but that teacher needs to be qualified to teach all the subjects in which Lincoln needs more staff.”