It didn’t go as planned at Hendricken, and that is good news.

The school projected a freshman class of 140 and 30 eighth-graders this year. But as of Monday, the freshman class had grown to 150 and there were 42 eighth-graders.

Principal Mark DeCiccio said Monday he was still receiving inquiries about openings and he plans to continue considering applications through the end of this week.

“Because we’ve had such interest, we’re going to keep it open,” he said of registration.

“I haven’t had this problem in my tenure,” he added.

The school was humming Monday.

“It’s like we never left,” Erin Sauve in the central office said between answering phone calls and the questions of students stopping in to drop off forms.

Meanwhile, students caught up on summer news with friends in the cafeteria, which has been subdivided to create the leadership center for excellence named for Dr. Frank A. DeLucia, class of 1970, who funded the conversion of the area that includes new windows, lighting, flooring, furniture, a smartboard and WiFi. The area serves as the space for the daily morning meetings of the Leadership Academy. The academy is made up of about 65 sophomores, juniors and seniors who work on projects and school operations. Monthly, they invite Hendricken alumni to address them and talk about their careers.

“They try to impact the whole school,” said Mark DeCiccio, principal.

While serving as part of the cafeteria during lunch, the DeLucia Center can be readily converted to a classroom. The furniture lends a cosmopolitan feel to the space. High chairs are grouped around a high-top mahogany table, and in one corner, colorful block-like seats and a couch make for a casual setting where students worked on laptops or chatted.

Father Robert Marciano, pastor of St. Kevin Church and Hendricken president, attributes the unexpected interest in the school to DeCiccio and his team. In particular, he cited the school’s leadership academy, programs and Natalie Kessimian, the school’s first female assistant principal, as moving the school forward as well as putting it in the spotlight.

DeCiccio called the school’s dedicated faculty and staff the “backbone to the school” and its mission “to develop the whole person, heart, mind, body and soul.”

“I would like to think the word is out,” DeCiccio said of the school’s reputation as a place where boys become men.

DeCiccio said overall school enrollment at 668 is down from last year, which he attributed to the unusually large graduating class of 2021. A total of 219 seniors crossed the stage to receive diplomas in June.