WECDSB not concerned about predicted decrease in enrolment

Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board building. March 25, 2025. (Meagan Delaurier/AM800 News)

While the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board (WECDSB) is predicting a slight decrease in enrolment for next year, which could affect funding, The chair of the board of trustees says she’s not concerned.

The board met earlier this week, with one report outlining preliminary pressures and challenges for the 2025-26 budget, however, Lisa Soulliere says it’s still very early.

“Our JK/SK registration numbers right now are actually quite good, a little bit higher than what they were last year at this time. So, we’re very positive about our enrolment numbers. This time of year, we’re trying to be conservative, we would like to try and do our budgeting with the conservative number for new students in the fall,” said Soulliere.

The report touched on a number of topics, such as the provincial outlook, core education funding, and enrolment.

It showed projected full-time enrolment for 2025-26 saw a 270-student decrease compared to the 2024-25 school year.

Due to the lower projected enrolment number, there is a forecasted grant reduction from the provincial government of $2.5 million.

The business department at the WECDSB has already started to review and develop a budget outlook for next year to ensure the board is not affected financially if these enrolment numbers remain the same.

“Really it’s just that at this point in the budgeting process, we don’t know exactly what our September enrolment’s will be, so we’re being conservative in the numbers that we’re using at this point to budget for. I expect that by September we’re going to see that number go up some more,” said Soulliere.She added that due to the number of investments locally that they’re expecting more families to come to the region in the summer and fall.The board is estimating a total of 22,480 students for the 2025-26 school year.The report was received as information only.

— Meagan Delaurier/AM800 News