Enrolment numbers bring windfall for Sudbury Catholic

Good news for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board — it's seeing a higher-than-expected enrolment in its schools this fall.

Board officials had projected elementary enrolment at 4,026 students, but the actual count as of Sept. 10 was 4,185. This means an extra $1.3 million in revenues for the board.

However rosy these numbers sound, this marks a net increase of just seven students from last June, when the elementary enrolment sat at 4,178.

At the secondary level, board officials had projected 2,012 students, but the actual enrolment exceeds the projections by 129 students.

Last year, the Sudbury Catholic District School Board was too aggressive in its enrolment projections, a situation that got it into financial trouble.

When the board didn't get the students it was counting on, and thus the provincial dollars that come with them, it contributed to a deficit which Sudbury Catholic is now working on whittling down.

The board's chair, Jody Cameron, said Sudbury Catholic was much more conservative in its enrolment projections this year.

“We look at all the trends, and we look at what we have from previous years,” he said.

“We say if the trend is going downward in terms of enrolment, then we become conservative when we submit our projections to the ministry to ensure our budget comes in line, because we did get burned before.”

Because more students enrolled than the board had counted on, they're also short a few teachers right now.

Six elementary teachers and eight early childhood educators need to be hired, at a cost of $1.1 million. Additional staffing required at the secondary level has yet to be determined.

“When we staff, we staff according to our projections,” Cameron said. “Because we say we're going to get this much money for this many students, we're going to need this many teachers. Because our students went up, we need to hire teachers.”