By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative
About 100 parents, community members and Prairie Spirit School Division (PSSD) trustees and staff gathered at Laird School on Wednesday, March 18 for a “meeting of electors” to help determine the future of the K-8 school.
The meeting of electors is part of the legislated process of a school review, which the school division initiated in September as a result of Laird School falling below the minimum enrolment threshold identified in the School Division Administration Regulations for a school’s closure (or the discontinuance of one or more grades) to be considered.
Incidentally, the process includes three formal motions that must be made by the PSSD board: an initial motion to begin the process, a second motion that was made in January to continue the school review, and a final motion to keep the school open or close it either partially or completely that must be made in April.
To start the meeting off, board chair Kate Kading shared a bit of good news: Laird School had been approved for funding in the 2026 provincial budget to receive a roof replacement.
Kading acknowledged this news was unexpected, and the board was only informed of the capital funding earlier that day during the budget announcement in Regina.
“It was a very pleasant surprise that we appreciate very much,” Kading said, noting that this announcement is now part of the information the board will have to consider.
Though Laird School is in need of an estimated $1.5 million in renovations, including a new HVAC system, she also could not say how much money had been allocated for this upgrade.
“We were told that the province is committing to working with us on finalizing the scope of the project, so we are optimistic in that area,” she said.
Having shared that announcement, Kading said the meeting would consist of small table discussions where note-takers assigned to each table would capture the comments made by community members. This would all be rolled into the information that the board would ultimately consider as part of the school review.
“Your perspectives are an important part of this process, and the board values this opportunity to hear from the community,” Kading said.
Regardless of anything else, the main factor in considering the future of Laird School is enrolment. As noted by Kading, if a K-8 school falls below an enrolment of 51 students, it may be considered for closure or the discontinuance of one or more grades.
Currently, Laird School’s enrolment sits at 35 students, and as highlighted later by PSSD Director of Education Tracey Young, it has been below that 51-student threshold for the past four years, having dropped to 42 students in 2022.
“At that time, the board chose not to have a formal review. Across the province, we were seeing enrolment fluctuations following COVID, and the board wanted to do a wait-and-see approach to determine if this was a short-term dip in enrolment or part of a longer trend,” she said.
“Since then, the enrolment has remained below the Ministry threshold for four consecutive years … So this fall, the board determined the decline appeared to be a trend rather than a short-term fluctuation.”
Another important factor in considering a school closure is whether another school is located within 40 kilometres. Unfortunately for Laird, the nearest K-12 school can be found at Waldheim, which is only about 14 kilometres to the southwest.
Kading stressed that the board has not yet made a decision about the future of Laird School, and they do not relish the prospect of considering the school’s closure.
“I will be open and transparent with you: this is the least favourite part of anything we have ever done, ever,” Kading said. “We do not want to do this.”
Taking over from Kading, Young shared data on three future enrolment projections for Laird School.
The first of these was a straight-line projection based on current enrolment and average Kindergarten enrolment over the past five years; it predicted enrolment would grow to 40 students next year but never grow beyond a high of 45 students in the 2029-2030 school year.
A second enrolment projection based on a survey of Laird area families predicted that enrolment would grow to 39 students next year and remain between 40 to 42 students over the next four years.
Finally, a third enrolment projection had been completed by the Laird School review committee, which had been comprised of Laird School Community Council members and representatives of local municipalities.
That committee had presented a report to the PSSD board in January, and their projections predict that Laird’s enrolment will go up to 40 students in 2026-2027 and continue to increase to 62 students by 2030-2031.
“As you can see, each of these projections tells a slightly different story, and none of them can be guaranteed to be completely accurate,” Young said.
Incidentally, Young said they estimated that there are about 18 home-based students in the Laird attendance area.
Young then outlined other possible factors the board may consider as part of the school review, including operational costs per student.
On that front, Young noted that Laird is at 47% utilization with its current enrolment, which in turn affects the amount of funding the division receives for the school’s operation.
“Ministry funding to the school division is reduced when a school is under-utilized. And while funding is reduced, fixed operational costs remain the same.,” Young said.
Another optional factor to consider is staffing.
Young noted they had heard many positive comments about the teaching environment at Laird School despite its necessary reliance on multi-grade classrooms.
On the subject of bus transportation, Young noted that one single bus route currently transports all students to Laird and Waldheim School.
If Laird were closed and students were sent to Waldheim, two buses would be needed to transport them.
That in turn would increase transportation costs, though student ride times would decrease for about half of the students, Young noted.
To wrap things up, Young noted they received a number of inquiries about whether discontinuing some grades at Laird School would help keep the school open.
Alas, Young said discontinuing Grades 7 and 8 at Laird would drive enrolment down even further, and operating a school with fewer students would increase the costs per student.
Young said they had heard some concerns about students attending a K-12 school after becoming accustomed to a K-8 school environment.
“As a division, we do have experience supporting students through transitions when grade configurations change. For example, in Rosthern, the elementary and high school were combined into a pre-K to Grade 12, and in Langham, we moved Grades 4 and 5 from the elementary school to Walter W. Brown to make a Grade 4-12 school,” she said.
It was a full house inside the Laird School gymnasium during the meeting of electors on March 18. Interestingly, while there were a number of Laird residents and Prairie Spirit School Division trustees and staff in attendance, Laird School staff were asked not to attend as ministry guidelines make it clear they have no role to play in a school review.