LAKELAND – Graduation classes in the Lakeland may see more graduates tossing their caps in the years to come with student enrolment numbers on the rise for many Lakeland school divisions.
St. Paul Education saw a student population growth of 99 students in the 2022-23 school year compared to last year.
Superintendent Peter Barron reported enrolment across the division is 93 students over what was projected. The school division has a total of 3,833 students enrolled in Kindergarten to Grade 12 this year, as opposed to 3,734 last year.
During an October board meeting, Barron said the numbers were “very encouraging.”
Northern Lights Public Schools
A similar situation was reported by Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS). The division saw its student body grow by 150 pupils from Kindergarten to Grade 12, compared to last year.
“That was also higher than we had projected,” said Nicole Garner, NLPS communications manager.
As of Sept. 30, the division is sitting at around 5,800 students.
“There were some notable changes. Cold Lake Junior High, grades 6-9, had 90 more students than projected,” Garner explained. “We have changed the configuration of our schools in Cold Lake, so we can't compare it to last year, but that is a significant increase based on what we were anticipating.”
NLPS schools that saw the biggest enrolment jump include Bonnyville Centralized High School, which was up 40 students in Grades 9-12.
In Lac La Biche, Vera M. Welsh was up by almost 60 students. That total does not include preschool enrolment, noted Garner.
“We experienced enrolment increases in all three of our larger urban centres - Cold Lake, Bonnyville, and Lac La Biche. This is different from the last few years where the majority of our growth has occurred in Cold Lake while our other communities either remained the same or declined,” said Garner.
“One trend that we do see when we analyze multiple years of data, is that growth does tend to occur in our urban centres first and then we see an increase in our rural schools in subsequent years.”
Conseil scolaire Centre-Est
Conseil scolaire Centre-Est student numbers remained consistent, with the division’s schools seeing an ebb and flow of enrolment numbers.
From the division’s Prématernelle (preschool) to Grade 12 classes, enrolment numbers have remained relatively the same between this school year and last year.
A total of 738 students and preschoolers are attending Conseil scolaire Centre-Est schools this year, compared to last year’s 739 students.
Lakeland Catholic School Division
The Lakeland Catholic School Division (LCSD) saw a dip in enrolment of about 1.17 per cent.
“When we look at the number of students in each school, we're pleased to say that we only have three schools that are a little bit lower than we anticipated. We have five schools that met or exceeded their enrollment projections,” said Superintendent Pamela Guilbault.
For the 2022-23 school year, Lakeland Catholic is reporting a total of 2,604 students, falling just under its projection submitted to the province in March.
The division’s official enrolment numbers from the previous school year had 31 more students attending Lakeland Catholic schools, for a total of 2,635 students.
“Our numbers are pretty consistent with what we had anticipated,” said Guilbault. "We have a very healthy pre-kindergarten with 133 preschool students, so we're very pleased with that."
When including the Lakeland Catholic’s Pre-Kindergarten enrolment, the division has 2,739 students.
