Brandon School Division registers 67 evacuee students

The Brandon School Division has so far registered almost 70 evacuee students displaced by northern wildfires.

The development marks a sharp change from just two weeks ago, when the division reported that none had enrolled.

Registration numbers are continuing to grow quickly — on Monday alone, 30 new students were signed up, and another 37 registered on Tuesday, BSD Supt. Mathew Gustafson told the Sun after the school board meeting on Monday.

“The division is prepared to accommodate even more in the days ahead. It is an evolving situation,” he said. “We’ve seen numbers increase sometimes slowly, and other times — like (Monday) — with a very large registration number. We are ready to support whichever direction it goes.”

The division has made classroom and staffing arrangements for up to 160 evacuee students.

“We’ve set up classrooms for all grades, kindergarten through Grade 8, that mirror their home schools,” Gustafson said.

Riverview and King George schools are serving as the main sites, he said.

“At the high school level, students are being placed in Neelin and Vincent Massey, with a focus on compulsory courses.”

The division has also put busing plans in place to move students if necessary and created additional classroom space that can be activated quickly should enrolment rise.

Teachers have been hired from the substitute list to meet the immediate need. Many of them were already filling term positions in the division, Gustafson said.

Classrooms were set up last week, ahead of the bulk of registrations.

When BSD officials last spoke publicly about evacuee enrolment on Aug. 28, with just days to go before school started, no students had registered. At the time, the division estimated up to 200 evacuee children might be in the city, but was uncertain how many would attend.

Gustafson said the shift since then likely comes down to timing, word of mouth and increased comfort level for families.

“Some parents may not have been ready on the first day to register, but came later,” he said. “We’ve also heard that as students went to school and came back to share their experiences, it helped increase the comfort level for other families.”

Students are currently spread out across multiple hotels in Brandon, which has also affected how quickly information gets to families.

“Communication moves differently depending on where families are. Word of mouth really has an impact,” Gustafson noted.

“Principals and staff from evacuee students’ home schools also visited Brandon, meeting families and helping smooth the transition,” he added. “That personal contact may have been another factor encouraging parents to register.”

Early in the evacuation response, the division drew up plans to accommodate as many as 300 children. That number was later adjusted to 200, and officials now believe fewer than that are in the city.

While there has been no financial commitment from the province to cover the added expense, the division has been in early talks with provincial officials.

“We plan to update them once the situation settles — how many students registered, how we configured classes and busing — and then have a discussion about supports,” Gustafson said.

He acknowledged the wildfire-related evacuation has been a learning curve, but said the division is committed to carrying lessons forward.

“We were able to leverage structures we already had in place for other emergencies. Our incident command system allowed us to respond in an organized way,” he said. “We’ll continue to review, learn and improve — for example, by building stronger communication channels between the division and the city’s emergency measures. This is something we can replicate in future situations.”

For now, the superintendent said what stands out most is the response from schools and evacuee families.

“Parents seem to have had very positive interactions with schools, and students are feeling welcome,” Gustafson said. “That has made a real difference as families make decisions about whether to register.”

» aodutola@brandonsun.com

» X: @AbiolaOdutola