Sacred Heart/Sacré Coeur School on the city's north side could be in for some numbers crunching as early as this year, and for sure, next year.
The school, operated under the auspices of the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division, offers the only French immersion program in the city. That fact, plus the continued growth in the residential sector on the city's north side, has put the pressure on the school to come up with some solutions in the past to handle the growth in registration.
While Pleasantdale School, a public school located nearby, has also witnessed an increase in enrollments over the past few years, it has been much more modest. Pleasantdale was also built and later renovated to accommodate more students, so administration in the public school sector isn't feeling the same kind of pressure.
Mary Ellen Barreth, Sacred Heart principal, said that while they will be able to accommodate another expected increase in student population this year, "next year, absolutely, we'll need another relocateable classroom."
The school received an additional classroom last academic year. It was a bit delayed in arrival and placement, which meant that some precious resource/library space had to be confiscated to use for a Grade 7/8 French immersion classroom. Another relocateable classroom had been added a couple of years prior to that.
Barreth said the enrollment at Sacred Heart was 283 and this year they were expecting as many as 320 students to enroll. Fortunately, most of those will be in the early grades where there is still some space available.
She explained as an example that a Grade 5/6 split classroom will require a complete Grade 5 and complete Grade 6 configuration next year.
"I've been very happy with the renovations made in the past. The board made good decisions once we made our needs known, and I'm sure they'll make them again with the next application. But right now, we have space to accommodate the expected increase. We can cope this year."
About half of the school's population consists of youngsters engaged in the French immersion programming.
