Declining enrolment spark meetings

Phase one of the board’s now-released school utilization study focused on what should be the basic program offered by the South Shore Regional School Board.

Because school board funding is linked to enrolment, the decline affects programming and staffing among other things.

Phase two will help decide how to offer the basic program.

The board hired a consultant to complete the school utilization study, explained Communications Officer, Paul Shields.

The board received the results on Nov. 27.

The study shows the percentage of enrolment decrease from 1995/96 to 2006/07.

Dr. John C. Wickwire Academy has an enrolment decrease of just two per cent while Mill Village Consolidated School is facing a 52 per cent decrease.

Mill Village Consolidated School Principal, Pat Morash said she is waiting for the public meetings like everyone else.

Morash added the report also looks at transportation, which may have saved the school from closing at a previous time.

Mill Village Consolidated School currently has 46 students.

South Queens Junior High School’s enrolment has declined by 17 per cent. Liverpool Regional High School’s student population has dropped by 13 per cent.

North Queens Elementary School has a declining enrolment of 22 per cent while the high school numbers declined 32 per cent.

Two schools - Milton Centennial and Greenfield Elementary - in Queens County have increased enrolment.

With the report in hand, a number of questions have come back to the board, said Shields.

The board plans to hold public meetings from Jan. to Feb. 15 to get community feedback.

If there is a possibility a school may close, Shields said the school board would not do it behind closed doors.

They will put the question out to the community, he said.

At this point, “we have drawn no conclusions,” he stated.

A public session will take place at the Liverpool Regional High School along with schools in Lunenburg County.

Dates and times have yet to be decided.

Go to www.ssrbs.ca to view the school utilization study.

Those who do not have internet access can contact Shields at 902-541-3005 for a copy of the study.