Though Pembina Hills has recovered some of the students lost in the 2020-2021 school year, the school division was off of its spring projections by about three per cent, according to the Sept. 29 enrolment count presented to trustees at their Oct. 13 meeting.
Treasurer Heather Nanninga, who presented the enrolment numbers to the board, said trustees had previously gotten an update on enrolment earlier in September but this update was the more important, as it determines the division’s funding.
“Whichever students we have in those seats on (Sept. 29), those are the students we get funding for, for that year,” she said.
Overall, the division has a total of 3,522 pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 students enrolled in community schools and another 2,234 students enrolled in Vista Virtual School (VVS).
The division had originally projected in the spring of 2020 to have 3,551 pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 students and 2,375 VVS students, which adds up to a total difference of 29 community school students and 141 VVS students.
Even so, it’s worth noting that community school enrolment had dropped from 3,776 students in 2019-2020 to 3,314 students in 2020-2021, so the community schools have managed to regain 208 students.
“I think that’s pretty great,” said Nanninga.
It should be noted that VVS students are not all full-time students; some of them are just one or several courses via the online program.
Board chair Jennifer Tuininga asked why some of the schools were showing significant variances, pointing out that R.F. Staples School in Westlock had projected 665 students and only had 591 students, a difference of 74.
Another major variance was at Eleanor Hall School in Clyde, which projected an enrolment of 231 students and ended up with 196.
On the flip side, Barrhead Elementary School ended up with 21 more students than expected for a total enrolment of 590, while Dunstable School and Busby School had 13 and 12 more students than projected.
Nanninga said she hadn’t really dug into what caused variances at the individual schools, though they had heard anecdotally of a number of students transferring over to St. Mary School in Westlock.
It was also suggested that Dunstable had seen a bump from a number of families moving into the area.
Looking at a graph that contained Pembina Hills’ 10-year enrolment numbers for both its community schools and Vista Virtual School, Nanninga said the division is reasonably stable.
“We’re not growing, but we’re not overly declining,” she said.
The 10-year enrolment figures for community schools are a different story, as those numbers are definitely trending downward. (Back in 2011-2012, the division’s enrolment stood at 4,052 students, a difference of 530.)
One positive that has come from the COVID-19 pandemic is a migration of urban residents to rural areas as more people are able to work from home, Nanninga noted.
