Enrolment within the Pembina Hills school division has fallen by just under 100 K-12 students from the previous year, according to the enrolment report presented to trustees at their Oct. 28 board meeting in Barrhead.
Supt. Colleen Symrozum-Watt said that as of the Sept. 30, 2015 enrolment count, Pembina Hills has 3,910 students in 11 schools, two Hutterite colony schools and two outreach centres, which is down 94 over last year.
She stressed that number does not include the population of Vista Virtual School, which has 3,116 students across the province as of Sept. 30 — the bulk of these kids are full-time and part-time high school students.
“We’ve had a real influx of students coming into Vista Virtual,” she added.
Symyrozum-Watt said their Grade 1-12 enrolment fell by a total of 18 students — approximately 0.51 per cent — from Sept. 30, 2014.
“The decrease is not across all schools,” she said. “Some of our schools experienced growth and others are in a decline.”
The bulk of the drop is at in Kindergarten as Symyrozum-Watt said enrolment had fallen from 442 students as of Sept. 30, 2014 to 366.
Kindergarten enrolment includes 46 early entry mild moderate students, a decrease from 61 in 2014-2015. Symyrozum-Watt noted this number varies from year to year, but a decrease was unusual.
Symrozum-Watt said Pembina Hills had 5,357 students when they began tracking data in 1994-1995 and overall, enrolment has fallen by 27 per cent over the past two decades.
She noted enrolment projections for 2015-2016 have been largely correct as across the division, schools estimated 353 Kindergarten students and 3,536 Grade 1-12 students.
She said the largest school within Pembina Hills is now R.F. Staples School, with a population of 754 Grade 7-12 students.
R.F. Staples saw an increase of 53 students from the previous year and currently has its largest Grade 7 class since 1991.
Conversely, Westlock Elementary School had a huge drop with its enrolments falling by 57 students, approximately 10 per cent, from 2014.
On the positive side, Symyrozum-Watt said WES, which has had issues with space for several years, now has more room.
Westlock Elementary School’s K-6 enrolment now stands at 540 students, while the decline includes 13 Kindergarten students and 44 Grade 1-6 students.
Symrozum-Watt also noted that WES currently has its largest Grade 6 class since 1991.
Eleanor Hall School in Clyde fell by 13 from 245 to 232 K-9 students. It should be noted Kindergarten enrolment dropped by nine and Grade 1-9 enrolment fell by four.
Busby School’s enrolment stayed static at 102, while Pembina North Community School saw a drop of four students — they lost 12 Kindergarten students but gained eight Grade 1-9 students.
