The Lakeland Catholic School District (LCSD) saw more students heading to class in their Bonnyville schools for the 2016-17 school year.
“We're up significantly; we're very pleased. Of course, the enrolment figures only become official on Sept. 30. Right now, those numbers are as of (Sept. 16), and we're up by 12.53 per cent,” said LCSD superintendent Joe Arruda. “Our numbers in Bonnyville, we're over by 50 students, and in Cold Lake we've exceeded 100 students more than we had last year.”
Across the district, unofficial enrolment numbers show there are 2,263 students in Lakeland Catholic schools – reflecting a 12.53 per cent increase over the 2015-16 school year. Of those students, 937 are attending Kindergarten to Grade 12 in Bonnyville.
LCSD communications officer Amanda Wildman speculates they've seen about a 10 per cent increase in their Bonnyville schools.
“We weren't exactly sure how things would go with the downturn in the economy, you never know how things will go. It's quite nice to see that our enrolment is steady and climbing.”
The local Catholic school district saw a increase in their Cold Lake schools with a preliminary enrolment of 1,133 students, and their new Lac La Biche school has 110 students. The spike in enrolment numbers division-wide was unexpected by trustees, who were presented with the report during their Sept. 21 board meeting,
“It's a very pleasant surprise. With the downturn in the economy we were looking at just being able to maintain what we had last year, or maybe a slight increase. We've had a 12.53 per cent increase enrolment in our schools. I think that speaks well for what we're doing in education,” said Mary Anne Penner, LCSD board chair.
The number of youngsters (three- and four-year-olds) entering district preschool programs also remained steady. Around 170 children were entered into preschool in the five LCSD elementary schools this fall. Penner credits this to contributing to their enrolment increase.
“Usually if we have children in our preschool programs then they enter into our kindergarten programs and keep going on with us.”
However, with the additional students also comes to need for places to put them. While the need is already being addressed in Cold Lake, with a proposed new high school, Penner noted the impact is also becoming evident in Bonnyville.
“The only problem with increased enrolments is the increased need for new space or more space. That's becoming a problem in not only our schools here in Cold Lake, also in some of our schools in Bonnyville as well,” explained Penner. “It will probably mean we will look at reconfiguring our schools in some way to make sure we have the space we need.”
The numbers could fluctuate even more before official enrolment numbers are released on Sept. 30, at which time the district's funding will be locked in for the 2016-17 school year. If past years are any indication, if anything, Wildman believes their numbers will only go up.
“We might see a bit of an increase. Just thinking back to our stats, last year and the year before we did see a bit of an increase, so it's possible that our numbers could go up a little bit.”
She added that school administration teams have also mentioned students are still trickling in.