Kids coming from outside the district aren’t squeezing out local students from their neighbourhood schools.
That’s the assurance from the Delta school board following the latest enrollment report. The district had been accommodating about 2,000 students from outside Delta, mostly from Surrey, but the latest enrollment figures for 2018/19 has that number slightly down at 1,830.
The per-pupil finding from the province for 2018/19 is just over $7,400. Because each student brings with them per-pupil funding from the province, Delta taxpayers are not subsidizing the enrollment, according to a district spokesperson.
“Out-of-district enrollment helps to offset the challenges of declining enrollment, including maintaining programs and facilities for Delta,” according to a district statement.
It was also noted, “As Delta is still down several thousand students from the peak of our enrollment, we have the capacity for many of the out-of-district requests. These requests are decided on a case-by-case basis as there are some instances when we cannot accept the request if a class or school is already at capacity.”
In total, according to the latest figures submitted to the Ministry of Education, Delta’s school population now stands at 15,366. That represents an increase of 75 students from last year.
