Holy Trinity Catholic School Division had projected that its student enrolment this year would be 2,252 pupils, but actual numbers are higher than estimated and the second highest in the past decade.
Division enrolment was 2,345 students as of Sept. 30, which was 93 pupils — or 4.13 per cent — more than projected. The last time actual enrolment exceeded projections greatly was during the 2018-19 year when 125 more pupils than expected — an increase of 5.69 per cent — enrolled.
“We’re really, really happy with our enrolment numbers … (it) is great to see,” said Ward Strueby, director of education. “It does rank toward the top percentage growth in the province right now.”
As part of this year’s enrolment, there are 124 more Grade 9 students than expected, which is the highest in the past decade, he pointed out. Furthermore, there are 196 students in kindergarten, which is the third-highest increase in a decade. The highest enrolment was 206 children in 2018, while the second highest was 200 in 2020.
“Overall, great news for Holy Trinity,” Strueby added.
The division does not know where it ranks against other school divisions for enrolment growth percentage increase, but was likely behind school divisions in Regina and Saskatoon, which experienced “quite significant” increases this fall, said CFO Curt Van Parys.
Holy Trinity would know better — and could compare itself to other divisions — once the Ministry of Education published that data.
“So rather, more anecdotally right now, we think we did quite well compared to most school divisions in the province … ,” he added.
Strueby believed that the division’s enrolment grew because of teachers’ efforts in the classrooms and because parents want their kids to have a faith-based education.
“They’re looking for what happens in the classroom because, overall, I think the work we do in school helps make this world a better place,” he said.
The enrolment of immigrant students is also contributing to the division’s growth, as evidenced by numbers in the English as an Additional Language (EAL) program, Strueby said, adding the division uses a demographics software program called Baragar’s to predict enrolment increases.
“We’ve relied on them (Baragar’s) for several years now in terms of enrolment projections and use their data, but (regardless, we’re) very, very pleased that we are 4.1 per cent above what we projected,” said Van Parys.
The ministry recently announced that it would provide an extra $15.5 million in operating funding to school divisions year because they had experienced the largest enrolment growth in more than 20 years. There were 189,900 students enrolled as of Sept. 30, which was 3,840 over last year.
Holy Trinity doesn’t know how much it will receive and won’t know until December, when the ministry re-analyzes the enrolment numbers to verify their accuracy, explained Van Parys. Once that occurs, it will issue the funding adjustments.
“We’re hopeful, given that we’ve had a pretty good enrolment increase of 4.1 per cent over projection, that some extra funds will be coming forward,” he added. “(It’s) very difficult to quantify, surprisingly … . But we’ve incurred some additional teaching costs that we hope will be covered by the additional funding in December.”
