As the September 30th cutoff date approaches the Vancouver School Board is anticipating a drop in overall enrolment beyond the initially projected 250 students. The most recent enrolment counts indicates that the overall student population could be down by an additional 900 students to 1,160 fewer students overall. VSB staff state that this number is preliminary and there may be some changes before the Sept 30th official count is sent to the Ministry. ,Nonetheless they note the magnitude of the decrease and have been contacting education partners to keep them informed.

The key information:

• Enrolment across the district will be approximately 900 less than projected (that is, about 1,200 studnets or approx 2% of total district student population);
• 500 students fewer at the elementary level;
• 660 students fewer at the secondary level;
• 300 of the elementary students are “full day Ks” (i.e. 300 fewer full day Kindergarten children enrolled than expected);
• Staffing allocations in schools with decreased enrolment will take place next week (approx 70 full time equivalent (FTE) teaching positions across the district);
• Every effort will be made to minimize disruption in schools. No child will have to transfer to another school;
• Principals and staff committees in affected schools will work together to make the staffing adjustments;
• There will be no teacher layoffs. Teachers affected by the enrolment decrease will become “permanent teachers-on-call” and assigned to replace teachers away ill or on leave. (In other words, we will use current teaching staff as TOCs and spend less money on hiring new TOCs);
• The net financial cost to the district of the decreased enrolment/reduced funding will be in the $1.5 million range, but that number cannot be confirmed for some time yet;
• All numbers are approximate and will be fine-tuned as additional information is received.

Update: Tuesday Sept. 27, 2006
Story Hits Monday’s news:
read the CBC story;
read the CKNW story;
read the News 1130 story; North Shore News story on situation on the north shore. West Van up, North Van down.

Robson Valley Times story on declining enrolments.

The education ministry projects an overall drop of 7,095 students from last school year, with only a handful of school districts — including Surrey and West Vancouver — expecting higher enrolment. Source, The Province, Setpember 5, 2006.