Dec. 08, 2016
The 2016-17 School Enrolment Report was presented to the Board of Trustees for information at the Dec. 6, 2016 meeting.
The information contained in the report is used throughout the year by the CBE to prepare other key documents such as the Three-Year School Capital Plan and the 10-Year System Student Accommodation and Facilities Strategy.
The report provides a snapshot of the CBE’s current state of student accommodation and allows the CBE to observe changes to school populations. The report does not provide analysis of CBE growth trends.
“We’ve had a significant change this year. The opening of 16 new schools this year has allowed the utilization rate across the system to drop from 87 per cent to 82 per cent,” says Dany Breton, superintendent facilities and environmental services.
As thousands of students can now attend school in their own communities, space has become available in the schools they previously attended. While some schools are under capacity, others remain at or over capacity or have capped enrolment. Planning is underway to make changes in the best interests of all students. Throughout 2016 the CBE has undertaken an engagement process to gather feedback from those affected by possible changes including staff, parents, students and communities.
“The impacted school engagement is helping us make decisions about possible changes to the future use of existing learning space next year and beyond. We expect to announce decisions by March 2017,” says Breton.
Despite the opening of so many new learning spaces, there are still 125 schools with utilization rates above 80 per cent. Utilization rates in new schools are also expected to increase in the next few years as many of these facilities opened without their senior grade.
The information in this report serves to inform the creation of the Three-Year School Capital Plan that will be presented to the Board of Trustees in March 2017. This report will outline new school construction and modernization requests to the government to help the CBE continue to meet the ever evolving learning needs of students.
2016 Enrolment Summary:
- Total CBE student enrolment as of Sept. 30, 2016: 119,147
This is a 1 per cent increase of 2,162 students. The most notable increase is in Grades 4-6 (1,274 students).
- Enrolment in alternative programs: 24,158 students
This is an increase of 465 students from 2015-16. Alternative program enrolment represents approximately 20 per cent of all CBE students.
The report provides detailed data measuring specific school enrolments, including:
- The number of students enrolled in each school, by grade and program, including alternative programs, specialized classes and the number of out-of-attendance area students on Sept. 30, 2016.
- Provincial capacity of the school. This includes the number of modular classrooms; the utilization rate at each school building, including lease exemptions; and the amount of instructional space available in each school based on the number of classrooms (rated room capacity).
- A list of the leases and the amount of space leased for each building.
All school boards are obligated to provide to Alberta Education standardized data annually utilizing provincial formulas for calculating enrolment and school capacity.
