A policy change that allows non-Catholic children to enrol in the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board’s elementary schools has helped slow the decline in enrolment this fall.
The board had 281 non-Catholics register in its elementary schools with most of those entering junior kindergarten. All students are required to take religious programming.
That helped cut an anticipated decline of 800 students overall to approximately half that number. The decline was evenly split between the elementary and secondary panels.
Current enrolment is 20,504 students compared to 21,029 last year.
“It definitely had an impact,” executive superintendent of human resources Terry Lyons said of the procedural changes to allow non-Catholics into elementary schools.
“The final numbers won’t be available until the second week of October.”
Lyons said elementary school enrolment has dropped from 13,150 students last year to about 12,900. Figures for secondary school enrolment won’t be available until next month.
As a result of WECDSB’s improved numbers, 113 of the 133 teachers laid off at the end of the last school year have been recalled.
The Greater Essex County District School Board will release its figures next month, but public relations officer Scott Scantlebury said the elementary numbers are up.
“It’s better than projected because we’ve had a lot of late registrations,” Scantlebury said. “There’s uncertainty among some parents about whether their child is ready for JK, so they wait.”
Scantlebury added the board hasn’t seen a number of transfers to the Catholic system.
“There’s been no discussion about any type of exodus,” Scantlebury said.
Lyons said the Catholic board’s numbers have also been boosted by the introduction of French immersion programming at Tecumseh’s St. Andre (formerly Ste. Gregory) and at River Canard’s St. Joseph’s.
The Tecumseh school has drawn about 80 students while St. Joseph’s has about 35.
“We anticipated 40 or 50 with an extreme high of 60 at St. Andre,” Lyons said. “French immersion has gone over very well at both schools.”
Other program expansions that have helped draw new students and retain existing ones are the additions of baseball and soccer academies to the existing hockey academy at the Brennan Centre for Excellence. A masonry program has also been added at that school.
There are 214 secondary and elementary students in the three academies and 73 high school students in the masonry program.
“The academies have been very successful,” Lyons said. “We’re looking at further academy additions and other new programming.”
Lyons said the board is looking at additions to academy programs that also include non-sports related academies.
The improved enrolment picture has positive implications for WECDSB’s budget.
“Overall, we’ll be better off with increased enrolment,” Lyons said. “It’s just hard to anticipate how much we’ll benefit right now.”
Though the enrolment picture is rosier than forecast this year, Lyons said the board still has much work to do addressing the existing excess capacity in the system.
WECDSB currently has 3,100 empty spaces and the Ministry of Education is pressuring all of the province’s 72 school boards to eliminate excess capacity. Last year, the province paid over $1 billion to maintain buildings that were under-utilized.
“We’re going to have to address those empty spaces,” Lyons said. “I would think we’ll have to (launch an accommodation review) this year to get those spaces down.”
Find Windsor Star on Facebook
