With an increase of almost 1,200 students this September, Langley School District had its third year in a row of record-breaking enrolment growth.
Including about 1,000 international students, there are more than 25,000 students enrolled in Langley School District this year, an increase of 1,196 from the headcount done last September.
“That’s the third year now that we’ve grown approximately a thousand students in this district,” said Brian Iseli, the district’s secretary-treasurer. “It is the highest, behind Surrey, in the province.”
Almost every area of Langley saw growth, but yet again, a couple of high school catchment areas absorbed the bulk of the new arrivals.
The R.E. Mountain Secondary catchment, covering Willoughby, absorbed 717 new students, or 59.9 per cent of the increase in enrolment.
Second was Langley Secondary’s catchment area, which takes in Langley City, Murrayville, and Milner, with an increase of 245 students, for just over 20 per cent of the total growth.
Aldergrove Community Secondary’s catchment had the third-highest increase in enrolment, up by 107 students, of which 51 were at the secondary school itself, 13 were at Betty Gilbert, 27 were at Parkside Centennial Elementary, and 16 were at Shortreed. The number of international students in the catchment held steady at 103 compared to 102 last year.
Walnut Grove, Brookswood, and D.W. Poppy’s catchment areas all had slight enrolment increases. The only area that shrank was choice schools, which dipped by nine students.
A few elementary schools had small decreases around the district, including Gordon Greenwood, Noel Booth, and Peterson Road.
“This growth is indicative of the demographic shifts that have been taking place in Langley since 2014 of young families having children and the in-migration of families to the district to take advantage of new housing in the Willoughby area,” said the staff report to the school board.
There was also a significant increase in the number of English language learner (ELL) students, which jumped to a total of 2,377 students, up by 461 from last year, a faster increase than the district had projected.
Iseli said that the number of ELL students has grown significantly over the past few years.
The number of Indigenous students in Aboriginal Education was up to 1,999 students this year.
Overall, almost every category of students increased significantly, except international students, which was rose by just 28, to 1,008.
When looking at students by grade level, Kindergarten was the only group holding steady – numbers dropped very slightly, with 1,746 students this year, down from 1,769 last year.
But Grades 1-3 was up by 243 students, Grades 4-7 up by 535, Grades 8-10 up 295, and Grades 11-12 up by 146.
In 2022, the September headcount showed an increase in student numbers of about 1,100 students. The year before that it was 900.
In the mid-2000s, the district’s enrolment was around 18,000 students, shrank briefly. Rural areas in particular shrank, and several schools, including Aldergrove Elementary and South Carvolth, were closed.
Growth in the Willoughby area, and more recently in Langley City, began boosting student numbers by the early 2010s.
Brian Iseli - sec-treas
