St. Albert’s only Lutheran school is now no more.
The King of Kings Lutheran School on St. Albert Trail held its last day of classes Friday. The private school had originally opened in St. Albert in 2010, and offered standard Albertan education permeated with Lutheran principles.
It was a very difficult decision to close the school, says Jan Pastucha, pastor of the King of Kings Lutheran Church, but with just 11 students, the congregation couldn’t afford to keep the school open. “We did everything we could this last year to increase enrolment.”
The church held a graduation and thank-you ceremony for staff and students Sunday.
Outgoing principal Ken Albinger says he wish he knew why the school never took off, as they had regular print and radio ads as well as an electronic sign advertising it. “We never attracted students.”
He said the school originally started in Edmonton in 1996 and had about 110 students at its peak. The kindergarten to Grade 6 school moved to King of Kings in 2010, opening with 14 students and an annual tuition of $2,600.
The church originally planned to build a building for the school, Albinger says, but held off when they learned doing so would mean paying about $323,000 in off-site levies. The students were instead taught inside a renovated part of the church.
The school needed at least 30 students to be financially viable, Albinger says, and never got above 14. The congregation made the decision to close it at a meeting in late May. They did attempt a merger with the St. Albert Protestant and Catholic districts, but neither was interested.
The school’s teachers have been laid off, Albinger says. Its students will attend various St. Albert and Edmonton schools next year, while he himself will be heading up a Lutheran school in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia.
Albinger says he’s disappointed to see the school close. “I honestly believe that in today’s world people need anchor points,” he says, and that Lutheran beliefs can be those points.
The Lutheran school never had much effect on the Protestant district due to its small size, said Protestant board chair Joan Trettler.
“The school wanted to provide education for their children, and I think it’s unfortunate that they can’t do that.”
Students can still get a Christian education through programs such as Logos, she notes.
