THUNDER BAY - Following what school officials are calling an enrollment bubble over the last several years that has seen the number of students dropping across both school boards, enrollment has now started to stabilize.
Enrollment at the elementary level at the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board is up from 5,457 in 2017 to 5,472 in 2018, a gain of 15 students. At the secondary level, enrollment is down by 35 students, falling from 2,265 in 2017 to 2,230 in 2018.
“Enrollment are pretty well the same as last year, maybe down a little bit, maybe 20 kids overall,” said Sheila Chiodo, superintendent of business and corporate services with the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board. “But a little bit higher than we projected, which is good news.”
According to Chiodo, the dip in the number of secondary students was expected due to a large graduating class in 2018.
“Over the years we’ve been having declining enrollment, but the last few years we have been stabilizing,” she said. “The high school students graduating is pretty well the same numbers as the JK students, but last year was a little blip, where we had more kids in Grade 12.”
The situation is similar at the Lakehead Public School Board, which has also started to see numbers stabilize after declining enrollment in previous years.
“Secondary student numbers are pretty stable,” said David Wright, superintendent of business with the Lakehead Public School Board. “They are down a little bit over last year, but not significantly, but we are really stabilizing across the school board, which is a good position to be in.”
At the elementary level, preliminary numbers have enrollment at 6,218 in 2018, up from 6,086 in 2017. Secondary enrollment is down slightly, coming in at 2,718 students in 2018 compared to 2,727 in 2017.
Wright said these numbers could change, particularly at the secondary level, as students transfer or drop classes.
“We will have firm numbers after Oct. 31, which is our count date,” he said. “We get the numbers in from schools and make sure students are not supposed to be on the register are not on the register.”
Much like the Catholic board, the Public Board also saw declining numbers in past years, but Wright said he expects the trend to start moving upward.
“Larger incoming classes moving their way out of grade 12 and smaller classes incoming, but we’ve seen a stabilization now and that will eliminate that bubble over the next couple of years,” he said.
