School District 52 sees drop in student enrolment

Student enrollment is down, so far, for the 2021-2022 academic year in School District 52, Director of Instruction Sandy Pond informed the school board trustees at a meeting on Oct. 12.

The district has had a net loss of 35 students after 156 students graduated in June, and another 121 new kindergarten children enrolled this year.

The financial ramifications for the district due to the loss of students will be unclear until December, Cam McIntyre said at the meeting.

In other announcements, the school district IT manager, Paul Cox, resignation was announced. Cox, who worked eight years with SD 52, will be moving on to a position at the Prince Rupert Port Authority.

Chairperson, Kate Toye, reminded school staff to remain vigilant for phishing and online security. She noted “how savvy email spammers are getting” and how anyone can be attacked through the medium.

“There are opportunities in here for training of how to recognize potential email threats,” Toye said.

At Roosevelt Park Community School, the Harvest Bin Program continues into its second year, of a three-year program, after a successful inaugural season.

“For the past school year we’ve been learning and experimenting with a series of five garden bins that were donated to us through the program as well as adopting some of the bins that were existing on the school site,” Erika Boker, program coordinator, said.

Family involvement in the program has helped elevate it to success, Boker said. Throughout the summer, families helped maintain and harvest the garden. For their efforts, those involved got to keep some of the food grown.

The program runs with the help of the BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation.