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Out of the box

About the only thing more assured than death and taxes is the inevitable bad news that will come with each year’s enrolment update from Pembina Hills Public Schools (PHPS).

About the only thing more assured than death and taxes is the inevitable bad news that will come with each year’s enrolment update from Pembina Hills Public Schools (PHPS).

Pembina Hills continued a trend that’s been ongoing since 1994 by experiencing another slight decline in enrolment.

Granted, the news was not entirely doom and gloom; divisionwise, the decrease this year was mercifully small, as PHPS gained an additional 38 Kindergarten and pre-school students but lost 40 students across the division.

That’s a net loss of only two students, although as secretary-treasurer Tracy Meunier pointed out, you shouldn’t count on all 397 Kindergarten and pre-school children going into Grade 1 next year.

Barrrhead Elementary School’s enrolment was way down, apparently because a fairly sizeable Grade 6 class moved on to Barrhead Composite High School.

While Barrhead Elementary actually gained an additional 31 Kindergarten and pre-school students, it lost 54 Grade 1-6 students, leaving BES with a net loss of 23 kids.

Of course, Barrhead Elementary’s loss was Barrhead Composite’s gain, as the high school actually went up by 42 students.

Outside of Barrhead, the smaller schools were fairly consistent or only lost a few students. That’s not bad considering the absolute drubbing that Westlock received this year, as both the town’s high school and elementary school are experiencing historic lows.

So what’s the pont of this lengthy and somewhat depressing preamble? “Things are bad, but at least they could be worse” doesn’t make for the best editorial.

While it isn’t referenced in the article on Page 4A, we should take note of the conversation trustees had after the enrolment report.

Nancy Keough, who represents Swan Hills, said she saw these numbers as an opportunity to market “a commodity of good education” to out-of-towners via a partnership with municipalities. Trustee Judy Lefebvre countered that Westlock (and Barrhead) don’t really have the industry or jobs to draw people here to work.

Fair enough, but as Keough pointed out, Swan Hills’ enrolment is actually up this year because they’ve managed to coax single moms to the community via the affordability of housing.

“They’re coming to build a life,” she said. “I think we have opportunities outside of jobs.”

And you know, that’s the sort of thing we should be thinking about. Not necessarily drawing single moms to the community, but more appealing to niche populations that you don’t necessarily think about.

Pembina Hills got on the right path with the relocation incentive they offered this year to staff so they would move into the division. We need more ideas like that if we ever want to cease the yearly bad news that come with PHPS enrolment updates.

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