The Grande Prairie Public School District is ready to welcome students back for the 2015/2016 school year tomorrow.
Superintendent Carol Ann MacDonald is keeping a close eye on student numbers in all of her schools as kids head back this week. MacDonald says there’s also 35 new teachers heading back to school, but she is not yet sure whether or not more will be needed.
“I’m seeing increases in student numbers in some schools and in other schools numbers are down so before we go out and hire others- because we will have the money to hire if our numbers come up- we want to make sure we have out students.”
MacDonald says the district won’t be able to get an exact count on student growth until classes, which start tomorrow, are in full swing.
There are no new schools opening for the district this year, but Superintendent Carol Ann MacDonald says there is still plenty of excitement as construction continues on the Isabel Campbell and Riverstone projects, both of which are set to open in 2016.
“We have lots of meetings planned for our community. Starting in September, we’ll be going to talk to parents about our boundaries. There will be lots of mobility again for Grande Prairie Public as we will be moving over 2000 out of modular classrooms.”
When the NDP government was elected this spring, Alberta school boards were assured that they would have money for student enrollment increases. MacDonald says now it’s just a matter of seeing how much that increase will be.