By Jill Sperling

Positive enrollment trends for PA school divisions

Oct 5, 2015 | 5:22 AM

Two Prince Albert school divisions are reporting an increase in enrollment for the 2015-2016 school year.

The Saskatchewan Rivers School Division’s numbers are higher than projected.

Alan Nunn is the superintendent of schools for the division. He said the division was expecting approximately 8,921 students this year, but the actual number was 8,964.

“So we’re 43 over projection,” said Nunn. “But we also projected higher than last year. So what this means for us is we’re 122 students higher than where we were on September 30 last year, and that’s kind of a banner deal for us.”

Nunn said the SRSD has increased its enrollment by nearly 300 in the last two years. This is a growth they’re not used to seeing.

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“The five years prior to last year we lost a little bit every year,” said Nunn. “We were dropping about 50-60 students a year, but the last two years we’ve totally reversed the trend. So this is just nothing but good news for us.”

Nunn believes the division’s city-wide bussing may have something to do with the turnaround. He also suspects the enrollment increase has something to do with academics.

“We believe we offer strong academics, we offer literacy, our high schools are top notch, sports teams – you know, the whole package,” said Nunn.

The Prince Albert Roman Catholic School Division is also reporting an increase in enrollment.

Education Director Lorel Trumier said the division experienced an increase of over 100 students this year. The division now has over 3200 students across eight schools.

Trumier attributed some of the increase to families seeking out faith-based education.

“I know that our families who are registering [with] us are seeking Catholic education,” said Trumier. “That’s very distinct and different and we do provide that opportunity to have a faith based learning environment.”

Trumier said it’s also the school division’s staff and strong academics that draw people to their schools.

“We have outstanding graduation rates. We outperform the provincial averages in almost all categories and we’ve had an increase of graduation rates over the last three years,” she said.

“I think the good word is out that there’s some good work occurring in our school division.”

jsperling@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jnsperling

With files from Khang Nguyen