LAKELAND - The East Central Francophone Education Region (Conseil scolaire Centre-Est) has experienced a nearly five per cent decrease in enrolment, compared to the 2019/20 school year.
During the Sept. 29 board meeting, it was reported that the trend is showing a 4.9 per cent decrease in enrolment.
"In early October, the management team will pursue its analysis of school staffing to determine if adjustments are needed," according to the board highlights, released after the meeting.
"Basically, drop in enrolments is generalized across the region, except for one school," says superintendent Dolorese Nolette. "We also have 12 students enroled in either a home education program or in online learning with us," she explained.
- École du Sommet (St. Paul) has seen a drop in enrolment from 156 last year, to 137 students this year.
- École des Beaux Lacs (Bonnyville) also experienced a drop in enrolment from 217 last yeat, to 201 in 2020/21.
- École Voyageur (Cold Lake) has increased, going from 268 students in 2019/20 to 272 in 2020/21.
- École Beauséjour (Plamondon) had 123 students last year, and has dropped to 111 this year.
- École St. Catherine (Lac La Biche) has increased from 38 students to 41 students.
The francophone school dicision also notes that staff and students are becoming more comfortable with the new COVID-19 related routines.
Federal funds
The francophone school division will receive a total of $400,000 in federal funding. The funds were given to the provincial government in response to increased costs being incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The federal funding CSCE was granted was extremely beneficial for our staff beacuse, with these funds, we were able to hire additional support staff in each school to pick up some of the extra duties generated by our COVID-19 measures, as well as provide additional custodial hours needed for the same reason," says Nolette.
Additional personal protective equipment and disinfection products were also purchased with some of the funds.
Early childhood programming
Early childhood programming is being offered at a number of CSCE schools, including École du Sommet in St. Paul where it is offered four mornings a week. At Ste-Catherine, Beauséjour and Beaux-Lacs schools, PreK is offered five mornings a week, along with afternoon daycare also being provided for the same children.
École Voyageur in Cold Lake also offers PreK and daycare services, along with before and after school child care.
"The programs offered at Voyageur are greatly appreciated by parents," according to the school division. The board highlights also note that "Preschools are very important for recruitment in our schools and also provide added opportunity for language learning at a very young age."
