INNISFAIL - Town council wants a meeting with Chinook's Edge School Division officials to find out why student enrolment figures at Innisfail High School have dropped significantly over the past five years.
Council passed a motion at its Oct. 9 regular meeting to have a sit-down with the public school board after being presented with an enrolment graph for all local schools, which was part of a Municipal Sustainability Report for 2018-2019, that showed the student population at the high school (IHS) had dropped from 550 in the 2012-13 school year to about 275 in 2017-18. The graph's enrolment figures for Innisfail's other public schools, as well as for St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic School, show each has had moderate increases since the 2012-13 school year.
"Specifically the public school (enrolment) from 2012 to whenever the chart ended showed half (of 550), so if I am hearing that is a trend that's alarming," said Coun. Gavin Bates, admitting he did not know the background behind the enrolment decline. "I don't want to prejudge anything. I just noticed the graph."
Coun. Doug Bos added the enrolment figures "alarmed" him because he feels it sends the wrong message to people wanting to move to Innisfail.
"A school is probably one of their (new citizens') main priorities, that their kids get a good education," said Bos, "It would be good to know both sides of the story and try to fix the problem if there is a fixable problem to fix."
Kurt Sacher, the superintendent of schools for Chinook's Edge, said he looks forward to talking with members of Innisfail council but added elected members "need accurate information" on IHS's enrolment numbers.
"You are starting with a number that isn't accurate and ending with a number that isn't accurate," said Sacher of the graph.
He said one problem with the graph is that it did not take into account that the high school no longer has Grade 8, which was transferred over to Innisfail Middle School in the 2013-14 school year. He said that would account for the loss of about 100 students. The schools' superintendent also noted the 275 student number for the 2017-18 school year is wrong. He said the correct number of students at IHS is 313.
"There is still a drop and there is reason to be asking questions about it, but it is nowhere near as dramatic as it is made out to be when you don't factor in the Grade 8 issue at the beginning and the fact the number at the end is actually higher," said Sacher.
He said one reason for the enrolment decline could be with the opening of Penhold Crossing Secondary School in 2014, which resulted in IHS's loss of many young Penholders. He added another reason was many students wanting to go to a larger high school in another community, such as Red Deer, where there are more academic choices.
"It's really hard for a small high school, even if it is doing well academically in offering good programs, to compete with some of the program offerings that are available in a large centre, and families make choices based on that," said Sacher, adding the school board has been looking at declining enrolment figures at IHS and mandated two major changes, which included ensuring IHS adopted a "safe and caring culture," and working towards improved student achievement results.
"There has been dramatic significant improvements in student achievement over a pretty significant time," said Sacher, noting IHS is one of the top performing high schools in Alberta and "significantly" above the provincial average. "The attention and care to every single student that goes on we are quite proud of, something a large school of 1,500 or more has a difficult time doing. If you have a child with risks, or are vulnerable in any way, we believe you are better off with that smaller number and that is where our strengths are."
