While the economic slowdown has had an impact on many different sectors in the region, some local schools are still growing.
The South East Cornerstone Public School Division and the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division have both experienced enrolment increases for the 2015-16 school year, according to figures provided to the Mercury by both divisions.
And while the official figures for the school year won’t be tabulated until September 30, the two divisions are encouraged with the early numbers.
Lynn Little, the director of education at South East Cornerstone, said they have a total of 8,211 students enrolled as of September 11, including their virtual school and pre-Kindergarten programs. There were 8,181 students in the division on September 8, 2014. The figure had dropped to 8,155 students when classes ended for the summer in June.
And they were projecting a total enrolment of 8,199 for the 2015-16 school year.
“We’re a little surprised by the increase, because as the economy rolled on in the last few months, we thought we would be a little bit down from our projection,” said Little.
Some schools in Estevan did exceed projections. The Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS), which boasts Grade 9 to 12 students, finished last year with 780 students, and was expected to dip to 774, but instead had 788 students as of September 11.
Westview School was the local school with the biggest increase. The pre-Kindergarten to Grade 8 school was projected to have 193 students, which would have been just one more than they had on June 30. But they wound up with 219 students.
“We haven’t done an analysis yet to see why,” said Little. “Some is movement within the community, and some is movement with people coming in to live in that particular area.”
The other three local schools had small decreases from their projections. Hillcrest School had 147 students on September 11, which was down from the 162 they finished with in June, and the 153 students they had projected.
Pleasantdale School was projected to have 223 students; they had 219 as of September 11. The school was at 216 as of June 30.
And Spruce Ridge School had 430 students as of September 11. They finished last year with 432 students, and they were projecting 438 pupils.
Hillcrest, Pleasantdale and Spruce Ridge are Kindergarten to Grade 8 (K-8) schools.
Most rural schools surrounding Estevan came in with lower enrolments than projected. The exception was the Midale Central School, a K-12 school which had 173 students, compared with a June 30 total of 162 and a projected enrolment of 163 students.
Lampman School, which is also a K-12 school, had 221 students, a slight decrease from 226 projected number, and the 228 they had in June.
Oxbow Prairie Horizons School had 373 students in its pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 classes, compared with a projected total of 385 and a June 30 enrolment of 376 students. Bienfait Weldon School, which is a K-8 school, had 125 students, which is the same as in June, but down marginally from the 127 they expected to have.
And Macoun School, which is also K-6, had 52 students, which dropped from the 58 they finished with in June, and the 60 they projected.
Little said they started making projections in January. The final projection figures were set in March.
“And then we’ve been watching over the course of the next six months as the economy and the price of oil dropped,” said Little. “We thought that perhaps our projections were going to end up being a little bit high. But at the end of the day, we were pretty much right on projections.”
Holy Family director of education Gwen Keith said they saw increases for their two schools in Estevan.
Sacred Heart School, which is a pre-Kindergarten to Grade 8 school, had 337 students as of September 9, which is up four from a year ago. St. Mary’s School, which is a K-8 school, is up 20 students from 232 to 252 pupils.
An extra portable is currently being added to Sacred Heart, and there has been a lot of work inside the building, so that they can accommodate future growth. Keith said they weren’t going to hold off on the portable just because enrollment increases at Sacred Heart slowed down this school year.
“With the way we get our funding for these portables … it doesn’t just happen immediately,” said Keith. “If we get everything rolling and in place, you can’t just drop it like a dime, because you might not get an opportunity again for quite a while.”
Sacred Heart received one of 33 portables approved by the Ministry of Education last year.
Overall, Holy Family has seen an increase of 38 students, from 1,273 to 1,311 students, which includes their pre-Kindergarten programs.
“It’s not a major increase,” said Keith. “We were worried about what might happen in terms of some of the economic conditions in the community, and whether there would be people leaving in the summer.”
Keith said Holy Family should be able to accommodate the students in all their schools in the southeast, and they should have a great
school year.
