The Foothills School Division is down about 200 student from what was projected before school started.

Superintendent Chris Fuzessy says they usually do pretty well when it comes to enrolment projections.

"We also did a five year historical on how accurate our projections were and they fall into the 99 per cent range of accuracy for school enrolment the following year," he says. "That's important for a couple of reasons. One, because if we are down by 200 students overall that may have a net impact on our budget."

He says it's also important because the current context is not one that could have been anticipated by any school division across the province considering the pandemic.

He says the numbers include students who are using the hub@home learning model which allows them to take their classes online.

Students in kindergarten are considered half time equivalents but overall it's a net loss of 200 students.

Fuzessy says there's been some discussion around talking to the province about maintaining the budget since projecting enrolments this year was especially challenging considering the circumstances.

 

Questions, comments or story ideas? e-mail news@highriveronline.com