Sacred Heart

By Cheryl Jahn

Enrolment Numbers

Independent enrolment up

Sep 24, 2019 | 3:23 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Prince George is home to two independent school systems and both are seeing increases in enrolment.

Cedars Christian School opening its doors in 1977 to 75 kids. Today, enrolment is around 355. That’s up about five per cent over last year, a trend that is continuing. The school added several portables and added class space when enrolment was pushing 420 students. So while there is still room to grow, there are still some challenges around class sizes when enrolment continues to climb.

“We’re pretty intentional about that when we’re doing class composition in the Spring and to create some new space for families in each of the grades,” explains Shane Nelson, the Principal at Cedars.

While the Catholic Independent School system, which has eight schools in Northern BC, is seeing more modest gains. There were enrolment gains nonetheless. Superintendent Chris Dugdale says they have seen the numbers increase by about three per cent per year in the past eight years. But unlike Cedars, there isn’t a lot of room to expand physically.

“That is one of our biggest challenges with our Catholic Independent Schools. Capital costs,” he explains. “But what’s interesting about that is our parish and our people and the community businesses come together.”

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