Rocky View Schools (RVS) is expecting to exceed its enrolment projections for the 2022-23 school year, as the public school division anticipates a 4.3 per cent increase in students by the time final numbers are tallied toward the end of September.
Superintendent of Schools Greg Luterbach told the RSV Board of Trustees at Thursday’s board meeting that early enrolment figures suggest RSV already has 27,563 registered students, which is 941 over last year’s total, but he expects the final count by the registration deadline of Sept. 29 to exceed his staff’s projection of 27,772 students.
“What we can say is that right now we are very confident that we are going to meet projection, (and) we are probably going to be over projection,” Luterbach told trustees. “And when all is said and done, we will probably be… over 1,000 kids more this year.”
That 4.3 per cent increase is about double the provincial average, Luterbach confirmed.
It's a stat that highlights the growth of RVS, which is already the fifth-largest school division in Alberta behind the public and Catholic districts in Calgary and Edmonton.
“We are growing fast, and we are growing faster than most of our neighbours around the province,” the superintendent said.
During the Sept. 8 meeting, Luterbach was asked by trustees if the spike in enrolment could lead to a potential shortage of teachers. He acknowledged it was a concern, but said the division’s most pressing issue this year is actually a shortage of classroom space, rather than a potential shortage of teachers.
“One of the other things we are also facing now, I am going to say a little more in high school than elementary, is that we are also running into a situations whereby even if the school has more students, and that generated more (provincial grant) money for the school, they actually don’t have any space to hire another teacher,” Luterbach said.
“So (the school) might have the money to hire a teacher, but they don’t have the spot for that teacher to teach and the kids to learn.”
Board Chair and Ward 6 (Cochrane) Trustee Fiona Gilbert asked Luterbach if additional grant money announced by the province for schools that exceed 2.5 per cent enrolment growth could be channelled to meet RVS’ infrastructure needs.
“Will we be able to use it to find some more space for these students who will have teachers, but no space?” she asked.
Luterbach replied it was a possibility; however, the more pressing issue – rather than finding funding to pay for additional classroom spaces – was actually the availability of new portables (modular classrooms) and being able to bring in the contractors to install them.
“We are just now receiving last year’s portables that the government purchased, and I believe the (contracting) companies are all pretty busy still right now,” he said. “It wouldn’t be something we could move toward immediately – unless anyone knows of unused portables that are in storage somewhere?”
School Facility Improvements
The shortage of classroom space to meet RVS’ growth needs was highlighted again later in the Sept. 8 meeting, when trustees received a breakdown of the many School Facility Improvements that were undertaken over the summer.
In several instances, RVS’ schools were renovated to adapt former offices and other specific-use spaces within the schools into new classroom spaces to meet enrolment pressures in a process division staff called “intensification” or “densification.”
Ward 5 (west Rocky View County) Trustee Judi Hunter expressed concerns about how these changes could potentially impact the overall learning experiences of students.
“As we intensify the use of Springbank, George McDougall and Fireside, we are taking away something from kids in order to fit them into buildings,” she said. “And I just wonder, is there an upper limit that we can push densification before we wouldn’t do it because of social, and emotional, and other types of impacts that might have on learning spaces?”
Luterbach replied that there is little choice at the moment due to the growth pressures RVS is facing, particularly in the division’s urban communities – Airdrie, Cochrane, and Chestermere.
“There are no easy decisions in this,” he said. “I think that is our reality right now we’re facing… We are trying to find spots for kids. And yes, every time we change a room from its intended purpose to another purpose, every time we have to carve off a portion of a learning commons or look at a drama room, and rather than it being used for drama, it is being used for homeroom, that is certainly not ideal. It does come at a cost of intended use. That does change the (learning) opportunities that students will get.
“So we are trying to balance that between keeping class sizes reasonable and making sure we have a space to accommodate our students to make sure that they are learning. But, it is not an easy decision and it is not without consequences.”
Both reports were accepted for information.
