In some schools, just a handful of children are attending Grade 1
Winnipeg Free Press
Monday, April 10th, 2006
By Nick Martin
ARCHWOOD School has all of three kids enrolled in Grade 1 this year. Minnetonka and Lavallee schools, both in St. Vital, have 10 apiece, Laidlaw, in Tuxedo, and Prairie Rose, in the Inkster area, have 14 kids each in Grade 1 -- and these are city schools.
Enrolment is dropping across Winnipeg, to the point that there are 19 schools in the city this year in which there are two to four times as many children in some senior grades than there are in the youngest grades.
It's a trend across Manitoba that started in the 1990s and shows no sign of ending -- there were 3,380 more students in Grade 12 this year than in Grade 1.
School trustees across Winnipeg have no plans to close any schools despite dramatic drops in enrolment in some older neighbourhoods.
The just-released annual provincial report on school enrolment as of Sept. 30, 2005, shows sharply declining enrolment in older neighbourhoods in Fort Garry, St. James, St. Vital and St. Boniface, where there has been little or no growth and few turnovers of homes by empty nesters to families with young kids.
The report shows that Archwood School in St. Boniface has dropped from 183 students five years ago to 120 this year -- with only three kids in Grade 1. Archwood uses multi-grade classrooms.
Darwin School in St. Vital has 22 kids in Grade 1, and 75 in Grade 9.
A department of education official said that the province, including the public schools finance board, does not conduct comprehensive tracking of the capacity of each Manitoba school.
Nor does the province compile lists of how many empty desks each school has -- even though the NDP and PSFB have a policy of not building new schools in the suburbs when there are empty desks elsewhere in a division.
"The division doesn't have any plans to close schools yet," Louis Riel board chairman Mike Ducharme said.
"It's not something we'd do without huge consultation with our community.
"It wouldn't be without seeking the community's buy-in -- we'd ask what you want."
Portage la Prairie has reacted to declining enrolment by closing two schools, amalgamating two high schools and converting one to a middle school, and shifting grades among schools.
In both Louis Riel and Pembina Trails, suburban schools are crammed, while schools in older neighbourhoods have more empty seats each year.
It's time to take a serious look at closing schools or moving grades around to fill empty seats, said Adrienne Batra, Manitoba director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
"It's unrealistic to look at enrolment figures and not realize there's a looming crisis," said Batra, who nevertheless admitted that trustees are unlikely to look at closing schools before the Oct. 25 general election.
Hard decisions
"We have to start making hard decisions -- delaying it isn't in the best interests of taxpayers," she said.
"Are we currently looking at reconfiguring (grades among) our schools? No," said Ducharme.
"It certainly is difficult for us to look at moving kids out of crowded schools (into old Fort Garry) -- they're different neighbourhoods," Pembina Trails school board chairwoman Laureen Goodridge said.
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
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More empty desks
PUBLIC school enrolment dropped by 2,170 students to 184,498 this current school year, and independent schools dropped 250 students to 14,079.
There are 12,857 kids in kindergarten this year, and 17,058 in Grade 12.
River East Transcona School Division is down 314 students and Louis Riel 256, while Winkler's Garden Valley is up 174 and Seven Oaks has gained 127 as of Sept. 30, 2005.
* Some schools are enrolling far fewer kids:
Minnetonka School -- 10 in Grade 1, 49 in Grade 9
H.S. Paul School -- 36 kids in Grade 1, 81 in Grade 8
Hastings School -- 28 students in Grade 1, 70 in Grade 6
Victor H.L. Wyatt School -- 21 students in Grade 1, 54 in Grade 8
Laidlaw School, 14 in Grade 1, 36 in Grade 8
Oakenwald School, 18 in kindergarten, 44 in Grade 6
* Winnipeg has some very small schools:
Archwood 120 students, Chapman 104, Collicutt 116, Parc La Salle 110, Harrow 146, Sherwood 119, Westgrove 132
The provincial school enrolment report is available at:
www.edu.gov.mb.ca/ks4/finance/facts/index.html