Enrolment up
St. Albert schools are busier than ever this fall, with the city’s public school board surpassing 9,000 students for the first time.
St. Albert’s four school boards released their fall enrolment figures through various means this month. Enrolment figures help determine education funding and a district’s need for school space.
St. Albert Public trustees received a report on their board’s enrolment Oct. 18 from secretary-treasurer Michael Brenneis.
The report showed that the district had the equivalent of 9,000.5 full-time students as of last Sept. 30, or 2.6 per cent more than they did in 2022 and about six per cent more than in 2019. The district also had its largest Kindergarten class ever with 657 students.
St. Albert Public vice-chair John Allen said the board had passed a milestone in that it had surpassed 9,000 full-time students for the first time, which spoke to the quality of education offered in the district.
“I look forward to being able to say, ‘Whoop! 10,000!’ in just a couple of years.”
Greater St. Albert Catholic also grew this year, trustees learned Oct. 23, expanding about 1.5 per cent to 5,522 students.
This was the second time in a row that the district’s population has grown following about five years of shrinkage, GSACRD spokesperson Shanlyn Cunningham said in an interview. Promotional efforts and new programs such as the elite performance centre at St. Albert Catholic High could explain this growth.
“We feel pretty blessed that we’ve been able to increase enrolment for two years in a row now, and we plan to do it again next year too,” she said.
In an email, district spokesperson Gabrielle Beaupré said the Conseil scolaire Centre-Nord (which has two of its schools in St. Albert) has 4,131 students this fall, or roughly six per cent more than last year. This was the first time that the district had surpassed 4,000 students.
Sturgeon Public trustees received a report Oct. 25 that showed their district had 5,167 students this fall, or nine less than it did last year.
Bellerose plans revealed
St. Albert Public trustees got their first look at the plans for the upcoming modernization of Bellerose Composite on Oct. 18.
The province announced a $46.3 million project to modernize Bellerose Composite last January. Once complete, the project will add about 275 student spaces to the high school and overhaul the school’s roof, bathrooms, and heating systems.
In an interview, Brenneis said the modernization will replace a chunk of portables at the back of Bellerose with a two-storey addition. In it will be a new Foods lab, classrooms, multipurpose rooms, a large open space to supplement the school’s atrium, and a relocated school library/learning commons. The current Bellerose library will be converted into four classrooms.
“It will be a very, very challenging undertaking, but we’re excited to see the end of the project a few years down the road,” Brenneis told trustees.
In an interview, Brenneis said construction for this project should start next fall and wrap up by fall 2026.
Lots of vandalism
St. Albert Public Schools underwent a wave of vandalism last year that could be due to warm weather.
Brenneis told the St. Albert Public board on Oct. 18 that St. Albert Public suffered $24,595.07 worth of vandalism last school year — about 46 per cent more than it did in 2021/2022 ($16,812.99) and roughly five times more than it saw in 2018/2019 ($4,785.89).
“It’s slightly unfortunate that the numbers have increased compared to last year,” Brenneis said.
Brenneis said there were few explanations at hand for this jump in vandalism, as it did not appear to be connected to any one person or place. Last year’s warm weather may have been a factor in that it made it easier for vandals to get outdoors.
Brenneis said the district generally has to pay to fix vandalism itself, as the damages involved are typically too small to be worth going through insurance. Working with the police on this issue was becoming “a weekly experience.”
“We are seeing a lot more thefts than we have in the last couple of years,” he noted, with thefts happening even in broad daylight.
In an interview, Brenneis said the district had stepped up its monitoring efforts to try and address vandalism.
