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Comp handling extra students

Enrolment is up at Okotoks’ biggest school, but it is manageable growth according to its principal.

Enrolment is up at Okotoks’ biggest school, but it is manageable growth according to its principal. “It does impact our time-tabling, we did rebuild that to try our best to meet class sizes,” said Foothills Composite High School principal Vince Hunter. “We are blessed to have this many kids, but we have to back up and re-plan that first semester to accommodate the volume.” The Comp had 1,179 students as of the official Sept. 30 count. That is up some 64 students from last year’s count of 1,115. Provincial funding is based on the number of students at the school. The school does have some help coming. The Foothills School Division will add a teacher at the high school for the second semester. Hunter said it is difficult for a high school to add a teacher in mid-term. “When we get a little closer to Semester 2, we will look to see where there is a bubble,” Hunter said. “We might be looking for a humanities teacher or maybe a math teacher… It all comes down to where does the enrolment go up.” There are pressure spots at the Comp. One Math 20-1 class had 39 students, which is down to 37 as two students opted to pursue the advanced placement program. He said the school aims for about 34 students for Grade 11 math. “Thirty-nine is high,” Hunter said. “But when you are trying to build timetables to accommodate kids and we start looking at different sciences they want and different options they want, there is that one class that has a bit of an influx because a bunch of the kids are looking for the same thing… We sometimes get a bubble that is tricky to deal with.” There is also an educational assistant in the Math 20-1 classroom. The Comp recently celebrated a $25-million modernization, which did not change the footprint of the school. Still it should be able to handle growth for a few more years. “Right now, we still have room for growth,” said Hunter, adding it still has a portable classroom coming to the school. The division also has a new high school on its priority list, but there is no timeline as to when any kind of an announcement from the government would be made. Any pressure at elementary schools and junior high schools in Okotoks should be alleviated next school year with the opening of the new K-Grade 9 Meadow Ridge School on 32 Street in September. Across the division, there was an increase of 28 students to 7,720. Drew Chipman, assistant superintendent, corporate services, said there is manageable, steady growth in Okotoks. He said five years ago Okotoks enrolment was skyrocketing, with increases of around five per cent or more every year. For enrolment figures for Foothills School Division’s schools as of Sept. 30 go to westernwheel.com Enrolment figures for Foothills School Division’s schools as of Sept. 30   K-9 Big Rock                 396.5 Blackie                   108.5 CI McLaren          202 Cayley                     137.5 Dr. Gibson            440.5 Joe Clark (HR)     288.5 Okotoks JHS        669 Percy Pegler       557.5 Sen. Riley (HR)   312 Heritage Hts.     522.5 Longview              55 Millarville            180 Red Deer Lake   452.5 Spitzee (HR)         346 Turner Valley     225.5 Westmount        682.5 Total K-9                5,576 High School Foothills                1,179 Foothills-Hub     35 Highwood (HR)  497 Oilfields                 358 Total H. schools                 2,069 Alternative schools Cayley Colony    33 HR Colony             15 Macmillan Col. 14.5 Cameron Xing    13 Total Alt. Schools 75.5 Total enrolment 7,720.5

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