THUNDER BAY - While enrollment numbers may be down compared to last year, officials with the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board said they are not concerned about the possibility of empty seats in classrooms anytime soon.
As of Oct. 31, 2017, the total enrollment in the Catholic Board is 7,745 students compared to 7,851 at this time last year, a difference of 106 students. There was a larger decrease in elementary students, with 72 fewer compared to last year, while secondary enrollment dropped by 34 students.
Sheila Chiodo, superintendent of business and corporate services with the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board, said the board was actually expecting a higher decrease in enrollment this year.
“We had a large grade 12 graduate class in June, so looking at that number and the JK registrations we had in June, we were expecting a decrease of about 193, so we are at about 87 kids more than we anticipated, which is great news,” she said.
Chiodo added that the board is not concerned with the decrease in enrollment this year and they expect things to be stable over the next few years.
“Over the last few years our JK enrollment numbers have been pretty stable, the same number coming in from year to year,” she said. “We had a little bubble the last few years where the numbers in grade 11 and 12 were a little higher than the JK numbers coming through, so the next five years our enrolment will be stabilized.”
Chiodo added that schools in the Catholic Board are at 85 per cent capacity.
