The Red Deer Catholic School Division has experienced a preliminary 5.4 per cent increase in enrolment from the end of the 2010-11, the board of trustees heard at its Sept. 6 meeting.ìWe're just thrilled that people are choosing Catholic education and that they're seeing the value in it,î said Adriana LaGrange, chair of the board.The division ended off last June with 6,250 students and had 6,586 enrolled across the division as of the first week of September.ìThe final head count on Sept. 30 is what we get funded for,î said Rod Steeves, Red Deer Catholic's secretary-treasurer.Steeves said division officials are happy, considering the provincial government estimated the division might see a one per cent increase in student enrolment over last year. He estimated the division would see an additional $2 million in student-based funding over last year's allocation if the student count remained at 6,586 until Sept. 30.At this point, Steeves said, the numbers suggest the division will have to hire about five new teachers as well as educational assistants.ìWhat we tried to do this year is keep the status quo on the number of kids per class. We basically will add teachers to take those (students) up. We're fairly conservative on hiring at this point, but there does come a time when once we know that we're going to get that funding, then we'll go ahead and start to look at our class sizes and the situation,î he said.Steeves said he was unsure at this point how the student-based funding would impact the division's overall financial position. In June, the division passed a preliminary 2011-12 budget deficit of $2.2 million, which reserves will cover for this year.
