The provincial government has provided Moose Jaw’s two school divisions with nearly $1.4 million extra because of enrolment growth that is putting pressure on their ability to deliver services.
The Ministry of Education notified both organizations in December that it would adjust their 2023-24 grant funding based on their enrolment figures of Sept. 30, 2023.
Holy Trinity Catholic School Division received $132,515 because it has 94 more students than last year, while Prairie South School Division received $1.25 million because it has 135 more pupils than last year, for a total of $1,382,515.
Both divisions briefly addressed the extra funding during their respective January board meetings.
Catholic division
Holy Trinity plans to spend $68,140 to hire an extra teacher to accommodate significant enrolment pressures at St. Agnes School, said CFO Curt Van Parys during the recent board meeting.
Furthermore, administration will use $14,375 for extra educational assistant support to accommodate enrolment pressures, while it will allocate $30,000 to the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Corporation (SDLC) to support five students enrolled in that program.
The province is also providing Holy Trinity with an extra $20,000 for its parent-teacher home visits initiative; this is the third year the ministry has funded this project.
This money is in addition to the $494,166 that the province provided last June to help Holy Trinity address enrolment growth and classroom complexity issues, said Van Parys. The division used $285,960 to address the former and $208,206 to address the latter.
It's great news that the organization is receiving these financial supports, especially since the provincial government has said that “growth is for everyone,” he continued.
“Is it enough … ? I would say that it’s not, but at least it recognizes that those (divisions) with enrolment growth, the money should follow those school divisions that are experiencing that,” added Van Parys.
Directing extra funding to St. Agnes is greatly appreciated, especially since there are an incredible number of students in the building, said trustee Christine Boyczuk. She recently visited the school and was amazed at how many youths were there.
Boyczuk noted that St. Joseph Parish has a new priest who is Filippino, and with many families in Moose Jaw of that background, his presence may have contributed to full services at Christmas and New Year’s Day. She believes his presence is also attracting Filippino families to Holy Trinity schools.
She added that many parents are young, so if they can secure full-time jobs, it’s unlikely that they will move.
Education director Ward Strueby explained that senior executive encourages schools to make staffing requests, and once those have been submitted, it reviews and determines whether more help is required.
Sometimes executive requires more information, but for the most part, the organization was able to honour some of those mid-year requests, he said. Having the executive make the decision prevents any conflicts of interest among superintendents who may have different opinions about need.
“… our whole team is there, and we go back and forth and say, ‘Is this a need? Can we shift some other things around?’ just so we have more eyes,” Strueby added.
Prairie South
Ryan Boughen, director of education for Prairie South, said in an email that the money the division received for the increased student enrolment will be applied against the surplus it accessed to operate the school division for this year.
The money will help reduce the surplus but will not eliminate Prairie South’s need to use surplus funds for this year, he added.
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