Is it possible to get a sneak peek at the 2006 census results before the official numbers are revealed? If student populations are any indicator, Slave Lake is bigger than it was last year, if only by a little.
Sept. 30 is the day that schools tally the number of students and send it off for administrative purposes. The Leader contacted some local and area schools to determine how this academic year was shaping up. Two schools reported a definite downturn in numbers, but the combined numbers point to a larger student population.
The biggest increase was felt at Roland Michener Secondary School (RMSS). High school principal Brian Zack had to bring in more staff to stay abreast of the growth.
“We’ve exceeded projections by quite a bit,” Zack says. “We’re at about approximately 720 students,” he says of the combined junior and senior high. “We’ve hired another teacher to help us with our numbers and class sizes. We have quite a lot of kids at the Grade 9 level. We’ve been able to split them into five classes instead of four.”
Michener had projected 675 students, which was about 15 more than last year.
E.G. Wahlstrom School (EGW) says the number of kids in its classrooms has dropped but that the drop was anticipated. Principal Donna Melvin says a smaller contingent from C.J. Schurter (CJS) is the biggest factor.
“Enrollment is 295. In comparison to last year, we’re down a bit. We had about 320 last year,” she says. “We were projecting back in June that it would be a smaller number simply because the number of Grade 3s coming in was significantly lower than it had been in the past. We’ve had 34 new enrollments, but many have also left our community.”
Principal Robin Ord-Boisvert of C.J. Schurter says that her numbers are exactly what she expected.
“With 432 students, it’s slightly up from last year. But, we projected that many and we have that many, so it’s good.”
Koinonia Christian School reports that its enrollment fell from 44 to 40 but was expected. Kinuso School is hovering around 275 students, much like last year. Area outreach schools have experienced wild fluctuations but those numbers will continue to change as the year progresses.
“Actually, it looks like we have less than last year,” says Saint Mary of the Lake Outreach School secretary Marie Carrier. “We got 50 senior high and 15 junior. I’d say that’s about 20 less. But, it’s still the beginning of the year. We do get a lot of students that (are) booted out of other schools part way through the year. Guaranteed, by Christmas, we will have more than 20 more.”
Lakeside Outreach went the other way, experiencing explosive growth. Native liaison Lesha Sharpe says Lakeside has 126 students and more are coming every day.
“We have 82 in senior high alone,” she says.
St. Mary of the Lake School observed a demographic shift in its student body. Principal Trevor Mitchell says overall numbers are relatively the same as last year, even though the junior and senior high shrank considerably.
“We have a lot of new students while a lot of other students have left for other schools and other communities. We have had a large transition of students but the number is still around 400, as it was last year.”
How does the small high school population affect the plans for St. Mary’s $13.7 million expansion? The money was promised last month to build a new junior/senior high because classes were so overcrowded last year. At the Sept. 26 Slave Lake Interagency meeting, Mitchell said that the new building could possibly hold everything from Gr. 5 and up.
It makes sense. If the overall numbers are the same, the elementary classes must be very large indeed. Living Waters school board will meet on Oct. 18 to discuss the ramification of the smaller high school population and how it relates to building plans.

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