According to Pembina Hills Public Schools numbers, Westlock Elementary School and R.F. Staples are down 69 students from last year, including an “unprecedented” drop of 22 Kindergarten and early childhood programming children.
While the division is hoping that it’s only a temporary blip, PHPS secretary-treasurer Tracy Meunier said WES has experienced a continual decline over the past four years.
“It’s time to pay attention to it,” said Meunier while presenting the 2017-2018 enrolment figures to the trustees at their Oct. 25 meeting in Barrhead.
The enrolment count is taken on Sept. 30 and Meunier said it is a “critical date” for the division, as Alberta Education bases funding to divisions partly on those counts.
It should be stressed that Pembina Hills’ enrolment count does not include the students from Vista Virtual School (VVS), which offers online education to students across the province.
Excluding Vista Virtual, Pembina Hills serves 3,818 K-12 students in 11 local community schools, two Hutterite colony schools and two outreach centres — a decrease of 54 students from the count taken on Sept. 30, 2016.
“When regionalization occurred in 1995, that 3,818 was 5,400. That gives you an idea (of) the decline in student enrolment in our communities,” Meunier said.
Kindergarten enrolment across the division experienced a net decrease of only one student from 2016, falling from 360 to 359.
Notably, that amount includes 22 early entry students under the age of five who have a mild to moderate need that can be addressed with extra supports. That number will likely go up throughout the year, Meunier indicated.
“We can pre-register them in Kindergarten so that we get one more year of funding for them, and in that term, then we can help provide some additional assistance,” she said.
As well, enrolment by PUF students — children with a severe disability or developmental delay — is up by 10 students from 100 to 110.
As for Grade 1-12 students, enrolment is down 53 from Sept. 30, 2016 — a decrease of about 1.51 per cent.
Though it was a higher drop than the decrease experienced in 2016, “it’s not as steep as it once was. So that’s the good news,” Meunier said.
Board chair Jennifer Tuininga said she spoke with mayor Ralph Leriger to advise him of the report and Pembina Hills will work with the Town of Westlock to determine why the decrease is occurring.
“They have different data around their census, about population base and by age,” said Tuininga.
“We’re just going to try and compare some of our numbers with theirs to see if we can figure out any kind of reasoning behind some of this.”
She said there’s always some movement between schools, but that shouldn’t account for such large numbers.
“So we have to do a little digging,” Tuininga added.
“When you look at their past enrolments, and then the level of drop by grade, that number is unprecedented,” Meunier added regarding WES. “It’s something to pay attention to.”
Not only is the decrease going to affect Westlock Elementary School, “it’s going to have an impact on R.F. Staples School as the years go by,” Meunier added .
Trustee Jackie Carson noted her three children had been enrolled at WES and then moved to Busby partly because of transportation.
“So there are factors like that (at play),” she said.
When asked about enrolments in French Immersion programming, Meunier said their Kindergarten numbers are the highest they’ve ever been.
Trustee Judy Lefebvre asked if they had looked at the enrolment of St. Mary School. Meunier said they had done some preliminary investigation, and while she didn’t have their Grade 1-12 numbers, their Kindergarten dropped from 31 children last year to 19 this year.
Enrolment at Barrhead’s two schools also fell by 19: 14 at Barrhead Elementary School and five at Barrhead Composite High School.
As well, Swan Hills saw a drop in seven students from 2016.
If you add Westlock, Barrhead and Swan Hills’ enrolment decreases together, the three communities lost a total of 95.
On the flip side, many rural schools have seen an increase. Busby School’s enrolment went up by seven to a total enrolment of 99 — an increase of more than eight percent.
Meunier indicated that enrolment in Kindergarten and other early education programming went up by five students, while the Grade 1-6 population increased by two students.
Eleanor Hall School went up 14 students from the previous year, including 11 ECS students — the total K-9 population stands at 263.
Pembina North Community School went up by nine making the total K-9 population 228. While its ECS population increased by 13, its Grade 1-9 population dropped by four.
Dunstable School, Neerlandia Public Christian School and Fort Assiniboine School also experienced increases.
Supt. David Garbutt asked what impact last year’s attendance area review might have had on enrolment.
Trustee Jackie Comeau said she didn’t think the attendance area review have much impact, noting they went down the numbers down one road moved into Pembina North Community School’s attendance area and “there really wasn’t a significant difference, from what I remember.”
In terms of Pembina Hills projections, they had projected a total Kindergarten enrolment of 347 students, which was too low by a total of 12 students.
However, their Grade 1-12 enrolment projected 3,478, which was too high by 19 students.
Aside from accepting the report for information, the board passed a motion to send a letter to their neighbouring municipal governments informing them of the enrolment drop, based on a suggestion from Tuininga.
“There are a lot of new faces around the county councils, and I think it would be of interest to them,” she said.
