Public board buoyed over enrolment
Teachers hired in light of growth
Local school board officials said higher than expected enrolment this fall is an indication the region is finally emerging from years of stagnating or declining population.
The Greater Essex County District School Board’s enrolment of 35,687 is its largest since September 2006 when it had 36,115 pupils. The public board is up 703 students over last year.
Though the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board saw a net decline of about 400 students from last year, that was only half of what had been originally forecast. The decline is the smallest drop the Catholic board has seen in the past seven years.
The WECDSB currently has 20,509 students.
“THESE NUMBERS MAKE ME OPTIMISTIC FOR FUTURE GROWTH.”
JAMIE BUMBACCO
“I think what we’re seeing are more families moving to Windsor and Essex County,” said John Howitt, GECDSB superintendent of education overseeing enrolment in the elementary panel.
“We’re seeing both new Canadians and students from across Ontario and outside the province coming to this area.”
The GECDSB was up 397.5 students to 23,979 students at the elementary level while the secondary panel saw an enrolment increase of 306 to 11,708.
While the data on new Canadians arriving is mainly based on principals’ reports, there’s a paper trail on new students coming from within the country.
Public board officials said they’ve seen a number of students registering who have come from Alberta in addition to Ontario transfers.
“The number of requests to transfer student records from outside our area is up,” Howitt said. “We’ll have a better idea of where they’re coming from after we break down our numbers.”
The higher enrolment has resulted in the GECDSB hiring the equivalent of 55 more full-time elementary teachers. That breaks down to 63 teachers being hired off the occasional list, with 14 of those working halftime.
The staffing levels for the secondary panel are still to be determined.
Jamie Bumbacco, the WECDSB executive superintendent of human resources, agrees that the population drop has bottomed out.
“We’ve at least stopped stagnating and we’re starting to see some growth,” Bumbacco said. “We were nervous about projecting we’d get 900 JKs this fall. We actually got 1,017.
“We’re not surprised by these numbers, we’re ecstatic in light of the demographic shift going on across Ontario.”
Bumbacco said the Catholic board is also noticing an increase in new Canadians and domestic students coming from Ontario and other provinces.
“These numbers make me optimistic for future growth,” Bumbacco said.
The WECDSB numbers break down into 13,304 elementary students, 261 better than projected, and 7,205 secondary school pupils, which is 95 more than anticipated.
Bumbacco said the board is also pleased it was able to retain over 90 per cent of students at schools involved in the school consolidations that occurred last spring.
As a result of the increased enrolment, the WECDSB was able to recall 103 of the 171 elementary panel teachers that were on the layoff list to a fulltime vacant position. Another 20 will get long-term full time and 29 are on the occasional list.
“By Christmas, if not before, I think the remaining 16 on the elementary layoff list will be getting some work,” Bumbacco said.
Of the 24 secondary panel layoffs, all have been recalled to vacant positions or long-term full-time work, except for one teacher on maternity leave.
Heather Gregg, business outreach innovator for WorkForce Windsor-Es- sex, said the school boards’ experiences reflect trends in population growth WFWE is also observing.
“We do see some substantial growth in a variety of industries,” Gregg said. “As long as that continues, this trend of people coming to the area will continue.”
Gregg added statistics show those new families are arriving with schoolaged children.
Both boards were particularly interested in how enrolment in the Leamington area would be affected after the Heinz plant closure. However, neither board experienced any significant enrolment drop in the area.
“It’s pretty much status quo, one school lost a teacher and another one added a teacher,” Howitt said. “That speaks to a healthy region.” The boards’ budgets will also look healthier thanks to increased enrolment.
With government funding ranging from $10,000 to $12,000 per student, the public board should receive in excess of $7 million in general student grants while the WECDSB is in line for about $4 million.
“These numbers say its good news for the local economy to be able to add high-paying jobs for the community,” Howitt said. “It also says Windsor is starting to see some glimpses of success that the city is on the way back.”