A joint research project between Banff Community High School (BCHS) and Canmore Collegiate High School (CCHS) was presented March 22 at the CRPS Board of Trustees regular meeting at BCHS.
The high school alignment presentation was led by BCHS principal Steve Greene and CCHS principal Chris Rogers. The two Bow Valley secondary schools are looking at ways to collaborate in continuing to offer local students exceptional course choices while facing future dwindling student enrolment. As an example of enrolment numbers, CCHS had 559 students enrolled in the 2008-09 school year, with a forecast of 425 students projected for 2021-22.
The schools are currently looking at past and present scenarios to offer students courses that will logistically fit both a travel and academic schedule without compromising extracurricular activities and athletics.
Scenarios being researched and currently discussed include travel between the two schools during lunch, a collaboration with Roam Transit, four-day weeks and a quarter system.
According to Greene, Banff Community High School enrolment has been pretty stable from 2008-09 all the way up to present day. Changes that are happening currently reflect, the rebuild at BES (Banff Elementary School), and the change in alignment in terms of demographic shift when BCHS becomes a Grade 9-12 school and BES will become a Kindergarten to Grade 8 school.
“It really became how can we get better at working together within the two schools, and what can we do to continue to create opportunity for our students by working together? Obviously, the budget comes out yearly and it impacts what we do as a district and how we look at the district,” Greene said.
“As we know, the budget just came out and we’re going to, as a district, look year-to-year at what it truly means in terms of impacts across the district in terms of funds coming into the district.”
Possible class offerings could include: biology 20, foods, mechanics, mathematics 30-1, physics, chemistry, anthropology, psychology and Spanish.
The research is based on students travelling from Banff and Canmore, with further discussion and research needed for students living in areas outside of the two towns.
The schools are also considering offering more advanced placement courses. Both principals stressed the research is still in the conceptual stage, with additional concepts and ideas being considered throughout 2017. The latest data, research and findings will be available to view at www.crps.ca following the scheduled student March break.
