The numbers are in, and School District 69 (Qualicum) exceeds expectations in number of students this year, said SD69 superintendent Rollie Koop.
During a school board meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 24, Koop presented the enrolment and class size reports for the start of the year.
With 4,046 full-time-equivalent students, the district has about 23 more full-time-equivalent students than it budgeted for, said Koop. The enrolment is an increase of 45 students over the 2016-17 school year, from 4,001. It is the third straight year of enrolment gains in the district.
“We’re pleased with the numbers overall,” he said, adding, “They didn’t come exactly where we thought.”
Extra students also means more funding for the school district, as each student, depending on their needs, justifies more money from the Ministry of Education.
Koop said he expects a few hundred thousand dollars in additional funding, but added the SD69 administration will now be able to make the case to the Ministry of Education to recoup money spent to comply with restored union language around student-teacher ratios.
The ministry gave SD69 $1.769 million earlier in the year to pay for the increase in staffing due to the restored language, which came as a result of a Supreme Court decision handed down last year.
Though the funding was notional, as it’s based on the student population which was unknown at the time, SD69 calculated that it needed another $956,000 to pay for its projected staffing need.
The ministry came back with $400,000 more in the early summer, leaving SD69 to spend money meant for other things, such as supporting the implementation of the new curriculum, or the purchasing of class resources, to comply with the restored language.
The good news is the district is in compliance with class size requirements in all but concert choir, concert band and other music classes at Ballenas and Kwalikum secondary schools, said Koop. Music classes used to be largely exempt from class size considerations, he said.
“Class sizes are really, really manageable right now,” he said. “We’re in a pretty good place,” adding that discussions with the Mount Arrowsmith Teachers’ Association continues over music class sizes.
Nonetheless, SD69 will be looking to the ministry to recoup the estimated $500,000 meant for other items that was spent on staffing.
“The ministry committed to funding the costs associated with restoring the (class size and composition) language,” said Koop.
Koop said there were bound to be districts where that funding was not accurate at the start, but added he’s confident SD69 will be able to recoup those costs.
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