Enrolment steady in North Shore schools

The number of students enrolled in North Vancouver public schools is down slightly this year, but not nearly as much as expected. That’s good news for the school district’s bottom line.

At the end of September, when school districts submit enrolment figures to the Ministry of Education, there were 15,803 full-time students registered in North Vancouver School District.

That’s 29 fewer students than last year but also over 100 students more than the school district was projecting in the spring.

Those numbers are important because provincial funding based on the number of students enrolled accounts for 91 per cent of the school district’s annual revenue.

The number of fee-paying international students, whose tuition also boosts school district coffers, is also up this year over what was expected.

There are 555 international students registered in North Van public schools this year – 25 more than expected in March. The number of international students is also up over the 500 who registered in public schools last year, when tuition contributed approximately $8 million to the budget.

In terms of classrooms where those students are studying, there’s still no word from the province yet on a request from the North Vancouver School District to build a new elementary school on the site of the formerly Cloverley School.

The project was given tentative thumbs up two years ago but is still under review by the province in light of rising construction costs. Meanwhile, the school district currently has 31 portables being used as classrooms at schools throughout North Vancouver.

Next door in West Vancouver School District, a small increase in enrolment has resulted in 7,020 students registered this year – up 60 from last year’s 6,960.

Numbers of both English Language Learners and special needs students are continuing to increase in West Van schools, according to Tricia Buckley, spokeswoman for the school district, a trend that has been noted for the past several years.

There are also 384 international students registered in West Vancouver School District this year – down slightly from the 411 students registered at this time last year, but still up from the 309 students who registered the year before, during the first year of the pandemic.

In the past two years, availability of homestays has been a key factor in the number of international students who can register in North Shore schools.

Enrolments in all school districts are tallied at the end of September and used by the Ministry of Education to calculate how much funding they will receive. Last school year, school districts received $7,885 for each full-time student. School districts also receive extra funding to provide supports for some students.

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