WEYBURN - The South East Cornerstone Public School Division and the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division have released their official enrolment numbers for the 2021-22 school year.
The enrolment figures became official on Sept. 30.
Holy Family, which has schools in Estevan, Weyburn, Radville and Wilcox, has 1,318 students, which is down slightly from the 1,331 they expected. There were 1,342 students registered on Sept. 30, 2020.
“We projected a certain number, and according to that projection, we’re just down about 13 students, so less than one per cent off of our projections. So we’re pretty stable in terms of where we thought we would be,” said Holy Family director of education Gwen Keith.
As for the Estevan schools, St. Mary’s School had 287 students on Sept. 30, which is up six from the 281 seen for the same date a year earlier. Sacred Heart School/École Sacré Coeur is at 335, compared to 340 a year earlier.
“It’s not a big swing at all,” Keith said.
Thirty-one students are being homeschooled who would have been enrolled at one of Holy Family’s schools, she said. Twenty-three were being homeschooled a year ago.
“Parents are uncertain about what exactly the year is going to look like,” said Keith. “Last year we had a lot of pivoting to remote learning.”
As for South East Cornerstone, which has the Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS), four Estevan elementary schools and numerous other schools spread throughout the southeast, Shelley Toth, the superintendent of schools and the chief financial officer for the division, said total enrolment was 8,295 students, which is up six from Sept. 30, 2020, when they had 8,289 kids.
ECS came in at 751 students, which is an increase from 724 on Sept. 30 a year ago. Toth noted that Cornerstone expected to have an increase in students at ECS, as the projected enrolment was 752 students, and they’re able to handle the influx of young people.
A couple of other schools in Estevan also experienced jumps. Pleasantdale School came in at 213 students, compared with 195 the previous year. Hillcrest School rose from 123 to 134 students.
Toth isn’t certain if the increase at Pleasantdale School is related to the introduction of French Immersion at the school for kindergarten to Grade 2 students, but she’s confident it would have helped their numbers.
Spruce Ridge School dropped slightly from 360 to 358 students, while Westview also saw a slip from 181 to 177.
As for schools in close proximity to Estevan, Lampman School slid from 178 to 174, Midale jumped by one from 134 to 135, and Bienfait Weldon went up by one as well from 115 to 116. Macoun School had an increase of approximately 25 per cent, from 47 to 59 students.
South East Cornerstone has 289 students registered for home schooling, compared with 282 a year earlier. And the Cyber Stone Virtual School is lower than last year, with 242 students signed up, compared with 393 the previous year.
“In previous years, it was only around 50 students, so it’s considerably higher than pre-COVID years,” said Toth.
