Freshman Annie Jonz is beginning high school like the rest of her class, and along with this transition she is also getting used to public school after going to a private grade school.

“I had always thought that public schools weren’t very good because I had never gone to one, but now that I’m going to a public school for high school, I judge it differently,” Jonz said.

Jonz went to Incarnate Word Parish School, which is Catholic, for grade school. She had been planning on going to Kennedy High school, another private Catholic school, until two weeks before freshmen orientation. For financial purposes, her parents decided she should go to Central.

“I was excited because I could meet a lot of new friends, but I thought high school was scary,” Jonz said. “I was worried I might get lost.”

Students from kindergarten to eighth grade can attend Incarnate Word, yet her grade now has more students than were in the entire school. There were 48 people in her eighth grade class, and 260 in the entire school.

Sophomore Kristen Stolte made a similar transition to Jonz when she was going into her freshmen year. Stolte attended Ascension Parish School, a Catholic school that offers kindergarten to eighth grade. Stolte’s class had 50 students, and there were around 400 total in the entire school.

Like Jonz, she looked forward to being at a bigger school.

“It wasn’t that hard transferring because I was excited to go to a new school and meet people,” Stolte said. “There is a much wider variety of people at central and I like that I get to experience that everyday.”