Students have been back in their classrooms for about a week and so far, so good.

Foothills School Division superintendent Chris Fuzessy says it's the best start they've had in a few years.

"I probably made it out to 12 or 14 of our schools all told, and people are happy, they're happy they're in class, they're happy they're with their friends, staff is happy, we haven't had a start this good in several years....lots of pancake breakfasts, open houses, barbeques and lots of parent's presence in our schools and we certainly appreciate that partnership and look forward to a happy year." he says.

Enrolment in the division is down a bit, but it's expected to level out.

Assistant superintendent Drew Chipman says officials don't put a lot of stock in the numbers until the end of the month when they have to send the numbers to the province and their funding is based on those.

Fuzessy says they could perhaps use a little more staffing across the division.

"When we did our budgeting in the spring, we didn't keep very much reserve at all in terms of teachers or support staff so we put as much into the system as we possibly could, so there are some pinch points with some higher class sizes here and there but in talking with our school leadership team I can't say that I've heard that we can't go on without another allocation."

Chipman says they were able to fill all the teaching positions that they'd advertised.

 

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