School board sees enrolment increase

Enrolment numbers are up for the Algoma District School Board (ADSB).

Board administrators and trustees were given an enrolment update by Asima Vezina, ADSB superintendent of education, at Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting.

School boards traditionally make projections as to how many students they will have in their classrooms every April in order to prepare for each annual budget.

“Our April (2014) projection for kindergarten children would have been 475…as of October 31 we were at 580 and we’ve held that number since October 31,” Vezina told reporters.

“What’s interesting is that our Grade 1 to 8 also increased.  We’re up in elementary by 259 students (at 6,400, up from a  projected 6,141) from the April projection.”

“At the secondary level we’re up about 15 students right now and for this time of year that’s a really good news item,” Vezina said.

There are 3,258 secondary students on the ADSB’s list.  

“Typically, we see it peter off (at the secondary level) throughout the year and our March 31 count will be lower than our September and October numbers.”

Vezina said she attributes the success at the secondary level to the variety of ways in which students can obtain a high school diploma.

“This is an interesting trend and I really do believe it’s because there isn’t a student in Sault Ste. Marie who can’t find a program in our board (suitable for their particular needs),” Vezina said.

“We have programming for everybody, whether you want to sit at the College campus and finish your diploma with Sault College (the School College Work Initiative), or attend the urban aboriginal program, or start school later around 11 o’clock and stay a little later, if you have mental health issues we have programming for you, we’ve got independent study, we’ve got e-learning, there’s something for every single person out there.”