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School District No. 91 announces possible closure of schools

Schools in Fort St. James and Fort Fraser/Fraser Lake areas could be affected.

School District No. 91 (Nechako Lakes) announced a potential reconfiguration, with possible closure, of schools in both the Fort St. James and Fort Fraser/Fraser Lake areas.

The announcement was made at the April 20, 2015, public meeting of the board of education of the school district. This initiated a 60-day consultation period in which the public will have an opportunity to provide input to the board of education.

At the end of this consultation period (June 2015), the board will either choose to remain status quo or to close schools in either or both of these areas.

Manu Madhok, Director of Instruction for School District No. 91, said a continuous decline in enrollments is the reason behind this reconfiguration.

“Decreasing enrollments are impacting school districts across much of the world,” he said. “We know that families are having far fewer children when compared to former generations. In addition, we are seeing a steady migration of families from rural to urban centres, which in turn impacts the small communities that we serve in our school district.”

In 2010/11, 4650 full-time students were enrolled within the school district. This year, 3857 students are enrolled, a reduction of approximately 17 per cent.

“School districts are funded by the number of students they serve, and with fewer students in our schools, our overall budget is impacted,” said Madhok. “Many of our schools were originally built for double the number of students that we serve today, which in turn impacts the servicing of these buildings such as maintenance, repairs, etc.”

In the Fort St. James area, the school district has seen a decline in enrollments from 900 students in 2000/01 (grades K–12) to 594 students in the 2014/15 school year. In the Fort Fraser/Fraser Lake area, the school district has seen a decline in enrollments from 664 to 464 students in the same period.

Over the last five years, the school district has closed Topley Elementary School in Topley, Muriel Mould Primary School in Burns Lake, and Prairiedale Elementary School in Vanderhoof.

Fraser Lake Mayor Dwayne Lindstrom said the announcement of the possible closure of schools caught him by surprise. He said he will be waiting for the public meetings to assess the situation.

“We don’t want to see any schools closing,” he said.