The first month of a new school year usually sees students attempting to find their classrooms and teachers trying to remember the names of many new pupils.
September is also when school divisions discover how many students they have and whether they need to add or subtract teachers at a school.
Board trustees with Prairie South School Division will likely add more teachers to a few schools this year after receiving an enrolment update during their Oct. 3 meeting.
The report showed there were 6,993 full-time equivalent (FTE) students enrolled as of Sept. 30, compared to 6,719.5 FTE students on the rolls at the end of September 2022. This is a year-over-year increase of 273.5 FTE pupils, or roughly 4.1 per cent.
Prairie South had projected it would have 6,735 FTE students by the end of this September. Therefore, this was an increase of 258 FTE youths, or roughly 3.8 per cent.
In real numbers, there are 7,231 full- and part-time students attending PSSD this year, compared to 7,096 a year ago. This is an increase of 135 youths, or roughly 1.85 per cent.
Some notable schools seeing increases beyond their projections include most Moose Jaw schools, Caronport Elementary, Rouleau, Coronach, Mankota and Rockglen.
In particular, Cornerstone Christian School has 257.5 FTE students, Briercrest Christian Academy has 144 FTE pupils, the Virtual School contains 112 students, A.E. Peacock has 710 youths, Central contains 615 students, Riverview has 114 pupils and there are 136.5 homeschoolers.
Division administration expects to receive an extra $1.2 million in provincial funding because of the higher enrolment.
The division office usually creates a staffing contingency plan in the spring to handle potential enrolment increases the following year, while it works with board trustees to hire more teachers if required.
Although data was unavailable about how many extra teachers and educational assistants (EAs) Prairie South hired last year to meet the enrolment increase, in 2022, it added an extra five teachers and nine EAs.
Prairie South uses a demographics software program called Baragar’s that uses health region data, migration information and birth data to predict enrolment. Divisions are never sure how many students they will have in September, but they must still submit their projections to the Ministry of Education by June.
Board chairwoman Giselle Wilson told the Express after the meeting that any increase in enrolment is positive — “The more, the merrier” — while the additional 258 FTE youths is “incredible.”
She noted that Prairie South strives to be a “world-class organization,” and when parents enrol their kids, that tells trustees they are fulfilling their mission.
Wilson suggested that most enrolment is happening in Moose Jaw because of immigration and some parents working on the SaskPower power plant project or with the pork plant. She added that the division may provide additional support to help new immigrant students address language barriers.
The next PSSD board meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 7.
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