About 200 more students have enrolled in North Vancouver schools than was expected this year, which is good news for expected funding.
Enrolment in North Vancouver public schools for the 2018-2019 school year is 15,286, including alternate and distance learning programs. That’s almost exactly the same number of students as last year, but 209 fewer students than district staff had anticipated, superintendent Mark Pearmain told trustees on Nov. 6.
That’s good news for the school district, because it will mean more provincial funding, he added.
Ministry grants are initially based on enrolment projections submitted in March. The school district had expected to see fewer students enrolled this year – both because the number of students entering kindergarten has been fewer than the number graduating, and because high school students don’t always take a full course load – and are therefore counted differently by the ministry.
Two years ago, students taking fewer courses than expected resulted in a calculation of about 200 fewer full-time students than expected.
But those numbers appear to have rebounded, said Pearmain.
“We will see an increase in our overall funding for the school year,” he said.
Numbers of special needs, English language learner and aboriginal students have also come in higher than expected.
The ministry of education provides extra funding to help school districts pay for staffing and resources for those students, although the province may also audit school districts with big anomalies.
The number of fee-paying international students has also increased slightly over last year, despite a projected drop in numbers. The school district had anticipated 625 international students, but 731 actually enrolled.
There have been more than 700 international students enrolling annually in the school district since the 2015-2016 school year.
Pearmain told trustees that not all international students are English language learners. “Some of them have very strong English language skills already,” he said.
Although overall enrolment has gone up and down in the past several years, the number of students this year is very close to the number of students enrolled in the school district five years ago.
