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Gish school enjoys surge in enrolment

There was a time when Elmer S. Gish was a school with a questionable future, dwindling student numbers and a poor reputation that kept even nearby residents from enrolling their children.
GROWING IN NUMBERS
Jeremy Broadfield

There was a time when Elmer S. Gish was a school with a questionable future, dwindling student numbers and a poor reputation that kept even nearby residents from enrolling their children.

But now the school is on the rebound, with thriving programs fuelling enrolment to the point that administrators have to bring in two more portable classrooms for next fall.

“As long as we don’t get two kindergarten classes next year, it’ll buy us at least a year,” said principal Duncan Knoll. “We’re almost at a point where we don’t want to keep recruiting.”

The school has seen a 43 per cent increase in enrolment since 2005. The student population is now over 450, up 17.5 per cent this year alone.

The most important element in the turnaround was the addition of the Christian-based Logos program two years ago, said Protestant district superintendent Barry Wowk. The board split the popular program, moving Grades 5 and up to Gish from an overcrowded Leo Nickerson Elementary. Gish’s enrolment is now about where the district administration had wanted it to be when they made that controversial move.

“I’m just thrilled with the viability of the school,” Wowk said.

The Logos program began with 70 students and now has 138.

Also contributing to the school’s resurgence is growth in the academic-oriented Cogito program, which was added in 2003 to jumpstart enrolment. After starting with 53 students, the program now has 185, drawing students from all over St. Albert, north Edmonton and outlying rural areas. A key selling feature is the mandatory school uniforms.

“We get calls all the time from people in Edmonton that have heard about the little uniforms. Not all the Cogito schools have uniforms,” said Heather Semple, a long-time Gish parent and current administrative volunteer.

The Cogito program also draws a wide variety of ethnicities, giving the school a noticeable multicultural flavour that’s uncommon in St. Albert.

“I would argue that we have the most ethnic diversity in all of St. Albert in our school,” Knoll said.

The school also has a mainstream English-language program, making it one of two triple-track schools in the Protestant system. Students from the three streams share the same hallways and take their option classes together so they interact and form friendships with one another. The school promotes acceptance and the students take their differences in stride, Knoll said.

Parents also marvel at how well the students get along, with very few exceptions.

“There was one student that would constantly mock the Logos program about our faith in God but that was dealt with and it was dealt with very tactfully,” said Logos parent Michelle Doherty.

As a K to 9 school, Gish struggles to keep its students as they enter junior high, since many parents perceive larger schools as offering more competitive sports teams and more varied courses. It’s the specialized courses that allow the school to compete.

“You’re looking around at different schools. You see the nice shiny new ones with all the fancy things. That catches your eye but we were there for the program. That was the draw and it kept us there,” said Cogito parent Cynthia Kaufmann.

Splitting the Cogito program stirred up a lot of parental fear when it was first initiated but it has worked out for Gish and for parents.

“It’s been a very smooth transition. It was much better than any of the parents had expected,” said Doherty.

The transition didn’t appear to be so smooth for some of the parents already associated with the school. A contingent of about 25 Cogito students left that year because their parents felt the addition of a third program was spreading the administration’s attention too thin, causing the Cogito program to lose some of its original vision, said former Cogito parent Colleen Holzer.

“Kind of like having three part-time jobs, you don’t really do a great job at any of them,” Holzer said.

“I think they’ve got a good vision now because I hear a lot of people are happy.”

Prior to Knoll’s appointment as principal several years ago, the school had developed a reputation for being uninviting. Its Akinsdale neighbourhood had a reputation for drugs and vandalism.

Oakmont resident Mary McMurdo knew nothing of that six years ago when she was considering a switch from the Catholic system to Gish’s newly-formed Cogito program. A few weeks into the school year she was shocked to read in the paper about drug deals and shots fired at the condominium complex next door to her kids’ school.

“It made me think, ‘what have I done putting my kids in this area?’” she said.

McMurdo experienced other shocks — Gish’s low enrolment, lack of parental involvement and the high need for parent fundraising. But now, with three solid programs in place, the school has a crop of very involved parents and teachers, she said.

“I think that St. Albert’s perception of Gish is old and wrong because my children have received a top-notch education there and I’m thrilled that I did make the move.”

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