WEYBURN - The South East Cornerstone Public School Division is reporting a decrease in the number of students for this year, but some of its schools, including a couple in Estevan, have seen an increase.
According to the Sept. 30 enrolment numbers, the school division had 8,224 students, which is down 71 from the previous year, but director of education Keith Keating said the number of students for 2023-24 was up 150 from the previous year.
"Last year we saw a fairly large increase in some of our numbers across the division, just with people moving in," Keating said in an interview with the Mercury and SaskToday. "This year there seems to be less kindergarten students coming in than Grade 12s we have going out."
He described the numbers in Estevan as "relatively stable". The Estevan Comprehensive School is down 24 students from 794 to 770, but the Grade 9-12 school is still the second-largest in the division, trailing only the Weyburn Comprehensive School, which had 945 students but is Grades 7-12.
As for Estevan's elementary schools, which are kindergarten to Grade 8 (K-8), Pleasantdale is up from 200 to 206 students, Hillcrest School has grown from 132 to 140, Westview is down one from 180 to 179, and Spruce Ridge has dropped from 388 to 361 students.
Total enrolment for the five schools in Estevan is 1,656, down from 1,694 the previous year.
"That was about what we projected in the City of Estevan," said Keating.
As for the rural schools, Alameda School, which is K-9, went from 83 to 81 students, Arcola School (K-12) jumped from 235 to 242; Bienfait Weldon School (K-8) went from 119 to 120; Carievale School (K-8) went from 86 to 88; Carlyle Elementary School (K-6) dropped from 249 to 233; Gordon F. Kells High School (Grades 7-12) slid from 215 to 201; the Carnduff Education Complex went from 316 to 313; Manor (K-12) dropped from 54 to 49; Macoun School (K-8) grew from 57 to 61; Midale Central School (K-12) jumped from 153 to 163; Lampman School (K-12) slid from 157 to 149; Lyndale School (K-8) grew from 61 to 63; Oxbow Prairie Horizons School (K-12) dropped from 368 to 364; Redvers School (K-12) declined from 266 to 260; and Stoughton Central School (K-12) saw an increase of nearly 10 per cent from 159 to 174.
"Our projections were fairly close in a lot of places. It seems like Estevan is relatively stable," said Keating. "We've seen an increase over the past number of years in Weyburn, but this year the kindergarten numbers coming into Weyburn were well less than what we've seen in previous years."
Keating said the division has had a great start to the school year. It's been wonderful to see the students and teachers in the classroom, and he's happy with what's happening in the division.
