Fort St. John school enrolment booming along with economic activity
CBC News | Posted: November 25, 2015 1:13 PM | Last Updated: November 25, 2015
The city is in need of three new schools to satisfy demand, according to the school district
A boom in Fort St. John is fuelling growth in school enrolment across the city, bucking a province-wide trend.
"The northeast part of the province is booming, it's growing, and with that brings a lot more children, a lot more students," said B.C. Education Minister Mike Bernier.
Bernier was in Fort St. John on Tuesday to announce a new $25-million elementary school for the northwest part of the city.
Many B.C. school districts are coping with empty desks and decisions around which schools to shut down. Statistics from the province show enrolment in public schools in B.C. is down about five per cent from 2010/2011.
The trend, however, isn't consistent across the province. Other school districts, like Surrey in the Lower Mainland, have also reported a growth in enrolment. And enrolment at private schools has risen by nearly 15 per cent over the past four years.
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Doug Boyd, the Fort St. John school district's secretary-treasurer, says several hundred extra students showed up for class in the city this year — a number that reached far beyond the district's projections.
"It's one of those things that's very difficult to predict because there's Site C, anticipation regarding LNG projects — there seems to be a lot of activity and it's bringing people here," said Boyd.
After this new school gets built, Fort St. John will still need two more to meet demand.