Three area schools have fallen below critical minimum enrolment numbers.
Smith, Rochester and Grassland Schools have all been flagged and reported to trustees on the Aspen View Public School board. Now the board will look for trends that have led to the decline in enrolment and try to establish if those trends will continue, according to superintendent Brian LeMessurier.
Smith School currently has 60 students, and no students in Grade 8.
“They are starting to get into single-digit (class) numbers, but very small single-digit numbers,” he explained. “This is the first time in my memory that they actually have a grade without any students.”
The school was built to house more than 200 students, so the board is thinking creatively about how to proceed.
“I think we should be looking very carefully at the idea of putting plywood up, and boarding off part of the school,” board chair Brian Bittorf said.
Bittorf explained that would cut down on the space they would have to heat and clean.
The school’s enrolment has been dropping for years, but because of its location, the school board is not considering its closure. As it lies halfway between Slave Lake and Athabasca, the bus rides to either centre would be too long to be feasible, according to LeMessurier.
Grassland School projected an enrolment of 110 students, but after the final count at the end of September, they sit at 107. Classes at that school are also small, according to LeMessurier.
This year Grassland School will graduate seven students, while the following year the number will rise to 15.
“Then they have classes that are almost exclusively single-digit class sizes,” he explained.
“They have five kids in their Kindergarten class.”
Rochester School only has 82 students.
“They’ve seen a slow and steady decline over the past six or seven years,” said the superintendent.
LeMessurier explained that in every elementary grade except Grade 6, Rochester School has single-digit class sizes.
“If we carry single-digit numbers across the grade levels, you’re really running into a situation where it is really hard to keep that school viable,” he explained.
Some parents who choose to have their children schooled in other communities ask that their funding remain behind, but that is not done.
“We live in a province that has provided the parents the opportunity to choose where their children attend school,” he explained. “People exercise their right to choice. They take their funding with them.”
