BARRHEAD/WESTLOCK - An unofficial preliminary enrolment count suggests that the Pembina Hills School Division is down about 435 students from its spring projections, with most community schools losing anywhere between 10 to 20 per cent of students.
During their Sept. 23 meeting, Pembina Hills trustees briefly reviewed a preliminary enrolment report showing there are 3,189 students enrolled at local community schools, a sizeable decrease from the original projection of 3,624 students.
For the sake of comparison, the Sept. 30, 2019 enrolment count showed Pembina Hills had lost 46 students from the year before but gained an additional nine Kindergarten students/pre-school children.
The biggest hit is at Barrhead Composite High School, which projected 686 students for 2020-2021 but ended up with 602, a difference of 84 students.
R.F. Staples School anticipated 624 students in 2020-2021 but ended up with 541, a difference of 83 students.
Westlock Elementary School is down 78 students from spring projections, while Barrhead Elementary School is down 64 students.
Eleanor Hall School in Clyde is missing 45 students, while Swan Hills School is down 43 students.
Busby School and Fort Assiniboine School are each down 10 students, while Pembina North Community School is down 13.
On the plus side, Dunstable only lost one student from its projections, while Neerlandia Public Christian School is actually up 20 students.
The Sunniebend Colony and Pibroch Colony Schools also lost and gained one student respectively.
Supt. Dave Garbutt said schools are reaching out to determine where these missing students have gone. His best guess is that roughly half are enrolled at Vista Virtual School (VVS), while the other half have pursued other options.
He noted there are a handful of students “that are registered nowhere as far as we’re aware.”
Garbutt suggested the parents of these students seem to be waiting to see what the lay of the land is in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of course, this significant drop in enrolment means that Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs) across the division are lower than originally budgeted for, with the exception of Neerlandia.
While this means staffing levels are too high across the division, Garbutt said they have yet to decide what to do with the $2 million they are receiving from the federal government to assist with COVID-19 related costs.
If they maintain staffing levels, class sizes will remain lower than they have been in the past, he added.
However, he said there are two reasons why administration is not yet making a recommendation to use the federal COVID-19 money: first, because the division is waiting to see how the province will distribute an extra $12 million specifically for online learning programs, and second, because Sept. 30 is when official enrolment counts are supposed to be done.
“We’re reluctant to do anything ahead of (Sept. 30),” he said.
