Population growth has been taking place in Portage la Prairie over the last several months, and it's having an effect on our local school population.

Portage la Prairie School Division Trustee Vice President Tracey Asham explains that she's been on council for the last two years and has seen a three-year classroom expansion at École Crescentview.

"It's fully accessible with an elevator," says Asham, "and six new classrooms at École Arthur Meighen that are all with accessible washrooms. Due to the fact that the school division has made accessibility a priority, they have accessible ramps and doors at main entrances at all the schools now."

Asham explains they also have grooming rooms in all the schools in Portage, which are rooms for those in wheelchairs and others with exceptional needs. Portage began implementing that in 2017. 

She says enrolment is up about 150 from this time last year, and is the result of newcomer Canadians.

"We have newcomers from over 25 countries, and most recently, 17 currently registered Ukraine students, and two more are registered for kindergarten in the fall," continues Asham. "We have a lot of supports for our newcomers. We have an English as an Additional Language (EAL) coordinator, Kendra McKenzie, and two settlement workers, as well as partnerships through the students services of some of our local immigration programs. We do try to get our newcomer students settled into school as best we can."

Asham says the newcomer growth seems more concentrated at École Crescentview and École Arthur Meighen Schools. 

"Even though their classroom sizes have been managed to keep them under 25, the increasing numbers just sort of make us realize that, at some point, we're going to have to look at something," adds Asham. "We are in the process of doing a catchment area review at the School Division Board. We have an ad hoc committee, and they'll probably start meeting next month. Currently, the catchment area for École Crescentview and Arthur Meighen is quite large. So, we'll be looking at how we can redistribute students so that we don't have to get portables or make a request for a new school. If we have space in our other schools, as well, we'll probably have to utilize that first before we can consider that."