Enrollment down at Horizon

Nikki Jamieson
Vauxhall Advance
njamieson@tabertimes.com

While the Horizon School Division may be down in students from year, they still have more then predicted.

In his superintendent’s report during the October meeting for the Horizon School Board, superintendent Wilco Tymensen highlighted that although the school division was down 57 students, they are up 39 students from last February’s predictions.

“A number of parents were concerned about the economy, a number of individuals may have already lost their jobs, or were afraid of losing their jobs and had communicated that if they’re struggling, they may be forced to move to another community in looking for a job,” said Wilco Tymensen, superintendent for HSB.

“We already knew some of those facts, and we kind of tried to plan the best we could for some of those reductions in numbers.”

With the economic downturn, the HSB had anticipated an enrolment flux in the form of students moving away or moving back to the district.

They believed that more students would move to another school district, and planned for it.

Enrolment numbers as of Sept. 30 are what determine government funding for a school division, since enrolment tends to fluctuate during September. However, this also means that if HSD gets more students after Sept. 30, they won’t get additional funding.

“Because at some point, you’ve got to have a cutoff, right? In terms of how you build your budget. And so the province uses Sept. 30 as that magic number.”
In addition, 60 students left the public school system to enter home schooling, bringing the total up to 115 students.

HSB is also welcoming a new director of finance, Jason Miller, and a new director of learning, Robbie Charlebois; the latter whom was hired after the report was released.

The report also talked about the modernization of several schools.

“Barnwell school and Warner School are moving ahead, Barnwell we’re hoping will go to tender in the next couple of days,” said Tymensen.

“Then as well, we’re hoping to move forward with design concepts for W.R. Meyers and D.A. Ferguson, early in the New Year.”

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