by Colin Smith
The details of a new Sturgeon School Division junior high school may be up in the air, but it’s certain that student population at the present Morinville Public School is going up.
According to Principal Wayne Rufiange, the current school enrolment is 701 students from Preschool through Grade 8.
“I am projecting 830 students from Preschool through Grade 9 in the 2016-2017 school year,” he said.
Of the 701 students, 131 (18.68%) have an address that is not in Morinville, including Cardiff, Legal, Sturgeon County and surrounding areas.
Rufiange said projected enrolment at the new school, for grades 5-9, would be 283 students if it were to open for the 2017-2018 school year. Morinville Public School will be Preschool to Grade 4, with a projected enrolment of 654 students.
Enrolment for the 2018-2019 school year is projected to be 335 students in the new school and 688 at Morinville Public School.
The student population of Greater St. Albert Catholic School Division’s Notre Dame and G.H. Primeau is numerous portables along with the core buildings.
Superintendent David Keohane stated that at Notre Dame 500 students are accommodated in the main building and 17 portables, and 425 at G.H. Primeau, where there are a dozen portables.
According to Keohane, more than 95 per cent of the population at Notre Dame and G.H. Primeau either live in the Town of Morinville or are in the schools’ residential area, i.e. Cardiff or Legal.
At Notre Dame, 460 of the students live in Morinville, 30 (6%) live in Legal or Cardiff, 10 (2%), classed as non-resident, live in Sturgeon County.
Of the students at G.H. Primeau, 350 are Morinville residents, 60 (14%) reside in Cardiff or Legal and 15 (3.5%) are from Sturgeon County.
The new GSACRD school planned for the Westwinds Development will be an elementary K-6 with a student capacity of 350.
