Saskatoon Catholic Schools continue to see record enrolment

The board chair for the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools (GSCS) says the need for new schools is becoming more urgent to keep up with rapid growth.

The school district topped 22,000 kids for the first time. As of Sept. 30, the number of pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 students saw an increase of 1,590 from last year.

“We’ve seen incredible growth over the last two years,” Diane Boyko said in a release. “We’ve added the equivalent of five schools worth of students in two years, but we have not had a new school built since 2017.”

The GSCS said families new to Canada continue to be a significant factor in overall growth, accounting for 1,495 students. A trend toward urbanization in the province is also a contributing factor.

Boyko noted the growth rate is not sustainable as the number of schools that are over-capacity increases every year, and their ability to convert other learning spaces into classrooms is dwindling.

“There’s a certain degree of urgency to build new schools — both elementary and high school,” said Boyko.

“Facilities are important. We need those. More importantly, we need to keep in mind it’s the people — teachers; educational assistants; supports like counselling, English as an additional language and speech language pathologists — that are the heart of education.”

Enrolment data has been submitted to the Ministry of Education. Depending on provincial enrolment numbers, additional funding later in the year to support higher-than-projected enrolment is a possibility.

The GSCS is Saskatchewan’s largest Catholic school division, providing education in Saskatoon and area, Biggar, Humboldt, Martensville and Warman.