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DEH CHO - Student enrolment in the Deh Cho has rebounded slightly after a significant decrease last year.

As of Sept. 30 there are 630.5 full time enrolments across the nine schools in the Dehcho Divisional Education Council. This is a 1.86 per cent increase compared to last year's total of 619.

Teacher Kristen Morrison leads a class at Thomas Simpson school, one of four out of the nine schools in the Deh Cho that had an increase in enrolment this year. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

In the Deh Cho every student counts. The funding formula for the next school year, in this case 2009-10, is based primarily on the previous year's number of full time enrolments or FTEs

"It's an important number," said Nolan Swartzentruber, the superintendent for the council.

Each student equals one FTE. Students who don't attend full time, such as half-day kindergarten students, are counted as half of an FTE. Last year the FTEs in the Deh Cho dropped by six per cent, or 40 students.

It was the first significant decrease the district has seen, Swartzentruber said. In the past enrollment has dropped by one or two per cent but never by as much as six.

Because the council tracks birth rates they knew five years in advance that the enrolment number would be lower, but it wasn't expected to be that low, he said.

The drop was the result of fewer kindergarten enrolments and families with children moving from the area, said Terry Jaffray, the student support consultant with the council.

The Deh Cho wasn't alone in the statistics. Across the territory enrolment dropped by 2.9 per cent from 9,198 in 2006-07 to 8,928 in 2007-08, the lowest enrolment in more than a decade, according to information from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

Swartzentruber said the Dehcho is one of the few, if not the only region that saw an increase in enrolment this year.

Four schools in the Deh Cho, including Deh Gah school, Kakisa Lake school, Charles Tetcho school and Thomas Simpson school, are responsible for the increase.

At Thomas Simpson school the number of students who entered junior high outpaced the students who graduated, said Jaffray. At Deh Gah school in Fort Providence the number of adult learners is likely responsible for their increase, she said.

This year's over all increase of 11.5 FTE's across the district, however, hasn't brought the enrolment numbers back to their previous levels, Jaffray said.

The remaining five schools in the district had decreased enrolment. The most significant drop was at the Louie Norwegian school in Jean Marie River that saw a 33.33 per cent decrease of FTEs from 19.50 to 13. The drop is the result of having five students graduate from the school last year, said Jaffray. Looking at the current population it will be four years until there's another kindergarten enrolment, she said.

The funding formula across the territory is based primarily on enrolment, said Sheila DeVine, the manager of board and corporate service for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

The most direct relation is between the number of students and the funding for teachers, DeVine said. From kindergarten to Grade 9, 20 students warrant funding for two teachers while 60 students get four and 100 get 6.25.

The smaller schools are given an advantage in the formula because no matter how many students a school has at least one teacher is always required, she said.

So far the Dehcho Divisional Education Council hasn't lost any positions as a direct result of decreased funding, said Swartzentruber.

Last year four teachers and one support staff position were removed. Some schools were overstaffed and the cut was delayed until the process of attrition meant that no one lost their job, Swartzentruber said.

"Overall I think we'll be stable over the next couple of years," said Swartzentruber referring to enrolment.

A lot of the enrolment, however, is based on migration of families in and out of the region and that can't be foreseen, Swartzentruber said.