The Board of the Battle River School Division (BRSD) recently reviewed the final total enrollment in the division.

Diane Hutchinson, Communications officer for the BRSD said, “We are down about 160 students overall. Some areas are up, some are down.”

Hutchinson goes on to say, “Some changes were anticipated, and others took their school by surprise.

Most of the surprises were in communities (such as Daysland) where an unanticipated number of families moved on from the area over the summer.”

Daysland’s anticipated 2016 registration was expected to drop, from 262 to 237, but the actual number was below that, to 228.

Others, like Central High Sedgewick and Forestburg, changed for the better, with more students than anticipated enrolled as at Sept. 30, the date that Alberta Education uses to calculate funding.

The overall total for Flagstaff Schools this year is 1,143, compared to 1,871 when the division was formed in 1995, but up from 2015’s 1,129.

These counts do not include colony schools, which stayed fairly static from last year.

At the time the division was regionalized, in 1995, total enrollment was 7,889. In 2006, that dropped to 6,908; in 2011 dropping again to 6,396.

The 2015 division enrollment number showed improvement to 6,499, but this year’s total, 6,338, drops it below the 2011 levels.

Read the full story in this week’s edition of The Community Press including the full enrollment chart – available on newsstands and via E-Subscription!

Leslie Cholowsky
Editor