More pupils, more home-schooling

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/02/2016 (2998 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba schools are seeing one of the biggest jumps in enrolment in recent decades — 1,644 more children this year, an increase of 0.8 per cent.

Public schools and funded independent schools both shared significant growth, but home-schooling saw a huge jump as well, another 10.9 per cent increase in children being educated at home.

Twenty-two of 37 school divisions gained students, headed by Seven Oaks at 281, Pembina Trails at 252 and Louis Riel at 204.

A 2.9 per cent enrolment jump in grades 1 to 4 is driving the growth.

An influx of workers at the hog plant in Neepawa saw enrolment soar in Beautiful Plains by 5.2 per cent, followed in percentage growth by Lorette-based Seine River at 4.2 per cent and Morden-based Western at 3.6 per cent.

Conversely, the province’s two largest divisions are down enrolment — Winnipeg by 153 and River East-Transcona by 104. In percentages, Gladstone-based Pine Creek took a 4.2 per cent hit; Gimli-based Evergreen and McCreary-based Turtle River both are down three per cent.

Ironically, Winnipeg got the go-ahead in January for a new school in the Waterford Green housing development, while Neepawa will have to wait at least one more year to get approval for a new school.

The Winnipeg School Division has also requested two new schools that the province has yet to approve — a new French milieu school for the west end of River Heights, and a new high school in the northwest — where three of Manitoba’s four largest high schools are bursting.

Three school divisions are now below 1,000 students: Flin Flon at 995, Killarney-area Turtle Mountain at 986, and Turtle River at 704. The entire Turtle River School Division barely has more students than the 656 students who attend Grade 12 at Maples Collegiate.

When the NDP imposed amalgamation across the province in 2002, then-education minister Drew Caldwell said the criteria were having fewer than 2,000 students, a below-average assessment base, and more affluent neighbours.

Yet, the province left alone some divisions that met those criteria and which have continued to be stand-alone for the past 14 years. None of the parties is talking about further non-voluntary amalgamation.

Manitoba School Boards Association president Ken Cameron said from Minnedosa that growth and decline vary widely across Manitoba.

“While total enrolment in Manitoba is up almost one per cent overall, the variations across both grade levels and school divisions are significant,” Cameron said.

“Some divisions are facing a shortage of classroom or other space, while others have excess capacity that they can’t manage appropriately due to the moratorium on school closures. These shifting numbers underline the importance of local decision-making if our school system is to be as responsive and efficient as possible.

‘Some divisions are facing a shortage of classroom or other space, while others have excess capacity that they can’t manage appropriately due to the moratorium on school closures. These shifting numbers underline the importance of local decision-making if our school system is to be as responsive and efficient as possible’

— Ken Cameron, president of the Manitoba School Boards Association

“All school boards must have the legal authority, financial flexibility and local autonomy to set priorities for, and remain responsive to, the needs of public education in their community,” Cameron said.

“Any policy that fetters board authority, flexibility or autonomy does not promote our ability to respond to the local context. For this reason, we have, since its inception, been opposed to the provincial moratorium on school closures. Our opposition is unchanged,” he added.

Pembina Trails has three of the 12 smallest schools in Winnipeg, including Chapman School at 51 kids this year. All three — Chapman, Beaverlodge and Westgrove — will lose their Grade 6 students in 2017 when the division realigns to middle schools of grades 6 to 8 in Charleswood and Tuxedo.

Some of Winnipeg’s smallest schools were doomed to be closed in the summer of 2008 or 2009 when the NDP suddenly imposed a moratorium on closing schools in the spring of 2008.

Some small schools continue to shrink — on the other hand, once-moribund Archwood School has doubled its enrolment in recent years, and others such as La Barriere Crossing and Queenston have recovered some of their lost enrolment.

 

The trend of the province’s biggest schools growing bigger continues.

Sisler High School remains the largest school in Manitoba, but Steinbach Regional Secondary School’s remarkable growth has pushed it into second place ahead of Maples Collegiate.

Linden Christian has been Manitoba’s largest independent school for many years, up 13 students this year to 940.

Maples has 656 students in Grade 12. There are three schools with grades of 500-plus, and 11 of 400-plus.

Manitoba Teachers’ Society president Norm Gould said enrolment has increased in five of the past six years, after two decades of decline, and should continue to climb.

“Immigration flows to the province continue at a high level. They’ve been around 16,000 the last couple of years. That, augmented by at least an additional 2,000 refugees, means recent public school enrolment increases are expected to accelerate somewhat.

“Enrolment increases are also more widespread than they were six years ago. The number of divisions and districts seeing growth has increased to 22 in 2015, from 16 in 2009,” he said.

Education Minister James Allum said the province will support all school divisions regardless of whether enrolment is up or down.

“Nationally, we’ve seen a trend towards declining enrolment but Manitoba has seen exceptional growth in some divisions, and we work with them to ensure that our students get the best public education available so that they can build a strong future in Manitoba. Our government has increased funding for public schools above the rate of inflation in order to meet the needs of a growing and prosperous province,” Allum said.

“While overall enrolment is up this year, we have also pledged to not reduce for funding for divisions that have a decline in enrolment, as cutting funding would be dangerous and reckless for hard-working Manitoba families.”

The Tories and Liberals did not respond to requests for comment.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca