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Unofficial enrolment numbers looking good for school boards

The preliminary enrolment numbers are in for local school boards, and so far they're looking good.
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The preliminary numbers are looking good for local school boards.

The preliminary enrolment numbers are in for local school boards, and so far they're looking good.

The Lakeland Catholic School District (LCSD) has seen an increase in the number of students in their schools, while Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) is sitting on par with last year.

Across the district, LCSD saw a 7.5 per cent jump in enrolment, something superintendent Joe Arruda described as "incredible."

"Growth has occurred in all of our eight schools. Our current numbers far exceed the enrolment projections we had last spring, especially in Bonnyville and Cold Lake," he expressed.

Overall, 2,567 students have enrolled in the district for the 2018/19 school year.

According to the unofficial count on Sept. 14,  when it comes to Bonnyville schools, the numbers are coming in around 394 for Notre Dame Elementary, 347 at Dr. Bernard Brosseau Middle School, and 319 for Notre Dame High School.

In LCSD's Cold Lake schools, Holy Cross Elementary has 441 students, 253 are enrolled at St. Dominic Elementary, and 533 at Assumption Jr./Sr. High School.

"It's something to celebrate for sure," said communications officer Amanda Wildman.

For NLPS, their schools have been on par with last year's numbers. The preliminary count came back with a total of 5,964 students across the divisions over two dozen schools, compared to 5,995 last year. However, district officials are still hopeful they can beat the 2017/18 enrolment.

"We're above projections, which is always good news for our sites and our students," said board chair Arlene Hrynyk. "While the numbers are still fluid, we hope to see this trend continue."

Since the report was completed on Sept. 17, new students have already joined NLPS, with more expected in the coming weeks.

"Since then, we've had 10 additional new registrations, and we've scheduled 20 intake interviews at our outreach schools," explained Nicole Garner, communications officer for NLPS. "One thing that we usually notice is that our outreach students register a little later than our other students."

Enrolment at their schools, as of Sept. 17, were sitting at 117 for Ardmore School, 364 for Bonnyville Centralized High School, Duclos School has 452 students, Glendon School's count came in at 231, H.E. Bourgoin School has 390 students, and Iron River School is at 82.

In the division's Cold Lake schools, preliminary numbers are showing 478 students at Cold Lake Elementary School, Cold Lake High School has 603, Nelson Heights Middle School is at 307, North Star Elementary School has 253, and Cold Lake Middle School has 326 students.

The Outreach Schools combined total is 211, not including the interviews scheduled.

While registration is open throughout the school year, it's a promising start for NLPS that they're exceeding their spring predictions.

"We're still going up... It's 65 more students than our school projected toward the end of last year. We're really happy with that, and happy seeing that there's still more coming in. We're looking forward to seeing what the Sept. 30 numbers will be this year," Garner expressed.

The official numbers for both LCSD and NLPS will be released on Sept. 30. That final enrolment stat will be sent to Alberta Education, which will determine the school districts' funding for the 2018/19 school year.

"On Sept. 30, we basically do a headcount and turn that into Alberta Education. They use that to determine our funding. Not just our base funding we receive per student, it also determines grants we receive and how much we receive in those grants," explained Garner.

The positive enrolment outcome is a good thing for rural school divisions in Alberta. Hrynyk believes the numbers reflect what Lakeland schools have to offer.

"We know declining enrolments in rural Alberta are somewhat of the norm, and to see our sites growing speaks to the education opportunities our children in NLPS are benefiting from," she said.

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