Good news for schools in the Foothills School Division as enrollment is up.

There are 8,045 students in the schools as of the end of September, but when you take into account the half-time kindergarten students the full-time paid number is actually 7,779 which is an increase of 135 students up from the 76 they predicted.

It was enough to allow the division to add more staff.

Allen Davidson, assistant superintendent of employee services says it is nice to have an increase year-over-year.

"We are pleased," said Davidson. "It is nice to be in a school division where you have enrollment growth from a staffing perspective. You don't have to shut classes down and you are not looking at a staff reduction."

And it is nice he adds to have growth that is under control.

"We've had challenges in Okotoks for a few years. It required us to look at boundaries in that community to make sure things were balanced."

Davidson says a boundary review also saw a shift of students from Spitzee to Joe Clark school in the past but with good planning they have managed to stay on top of things.

 

If you see something we should know about e-mail us at news@highriveronline.com