Enrolment for elementary students remains steady, secondary enrolment decreases

By Leah Den Hartogh

BELLEVILLE  – The public school board needs to attract younger families to the area to bring up the enrolment numbers in schools, said Dave Patterson, vice-chair of Hasting Prince Edward District School Board.

Patterson raised the issue after superintendent of business services Nick Pfeiffer gave a full report on enrolment numbers at the end of the public board meeting on Monday night.

“We are investing foolishly if we don’t get the enrolment up,” said Patterson.

He says municipal councils are not investing enough in attracting younger families to the region, but are looking at bringing retirees to the area.

The school board has created a strategic plan providing student excellence, public confidence, student well-being, and leading and learning. The strategic plan is called: Possibilities for Today and Tomorrow.

Investing in new schools and making additions to existing schools is part of their strategic plan. These renovations cost the board millions of dollars, said Patterson.

Publicly run schools rely on the Ministry of Education for funding, said Kerry Donnell, communications officer for HPEDSB.

Enrolment is the basis for determining how much funding a board will receive, she said.

“Over the 10-to-12 years we have experienced a decline in elementary enrolment so it’s not surprising now that we are seeing a decline in secondary schools,” said Donnell.

“It’s not surprising that enrolment is down. We know that this will be happening for another few years.”

Elementary student enrolment increased this year to 10,340 students – which is 55 more students than the previously projected number.

For secondary students, there was a decrease of 112 students to the projected number of enroled – bringing the number of students in secondary schooling to 4,587.

Overall, there is a decrease of 57 students in the projected number of students in the board.

With files from Alana Pickrell, QNet News