Matthew Liebenberg
Student enrolment in the Chinook School Division has remained above 6,000 students for a third year in a row.
The official enrolment figures for the 2026-27 school year are based on student numbers recorded on Sept. 30, when there were 6,095 learners. This is an increase of 26 students compared to the 2025-26 enrolment of 6,069 students, but 14 less than the projected enrolment for the current school year.
Director of Education Angela Hermanson presented the official enrolment report for the 2026-27 school year during a regular meeting of the Chinook Board of Education, Oct. 13.
“We’re excited to see an increase in our enrolment,” she said after the meeting.
She explained how the projected enrolment was calculated to get an indication of expected student numbers before the start of the new school year.
“Our schools base it on their incoming kindergartens and their outgoing Grade 12s, and just awareness that they have of trends over the years,” she said.
The gap of 14 fewer students in actual enrolment compared to the projected number can be due to a variety of factors.
“It could be families moving,” she said. “It could be people transitioning to homeschool. … There’s a bit of variance there with our projections just based on people’s decisions and family things that occur over the summer or unexpected things that come up, but we were prepared for it to be over that 6,000 number, which is exciting for us. It’s always exciting to see our enrolment increase.”
The final enrolment numbers indicate there are 5,278 students in public schools, which are 58 less than last year. Enrolment increases at two Swift Current schools have been notable.
“I would say we’ve seen a big increase at the Swift Current Comp as well as Irwin School,” she mentioned. “Those would be our biggest notable number increases.”
There are 561 Hutterite colony students enrolled for the 2026-27 school year, which is an increase of 39 students compared to the previous year. The number of students enrolled in home-based education increased by 45 students to a total of 256 learners for the current school year.
According to Hermanson there is not a clear enrolment trend in rural public schools and it is very community-dependent.
“It depends on what’s occurring in the community, what businesses, what infrastructures are in the community, what’s happening with the local farms in the community,” she said. “So, there’d be a variance. We don’t see as big enrolment jumps in our rural areas. Typically, they hold fairly steady.”
She added that the number of outgoing Grade 12 students or incoming kindergarten students can have a noticeable impact on enrolment numbers for rural schools.
“Sometimes we’ll see bubbles in those communities where they have a large class of students and then it drops off again, but it picks up,” she said. “They’re pretty steady right now. We have a few that’s seeing decreases, but I would say overall they’re holding fairly steady in their numbers in our rural.”
Enrolment numbers are important to the school division, because it is a significant factor in the annual budget allocation from the provincial government.
Enrolment numbers are important to the school division, because it is a significant factor in the annual budget allocation from the provincial government.
“The province evaluates all of the school divisions and all of their enrolments and then reallocates based on all of those numbers coming in,” she said. “You never want to see a decrease in enrolment based on your budget and planning, and we did not see that. We’ve seen an increase. So, we’re very thankful for that.”
