As St. Anthony’s School students head back to classes today, there have been new exciting developments at the school to serve valley students.
Leading the way is the new entrepreneurship program being offered at the school. Introduced, and to be delivered by principal JoAnne Akerboom, there are 23 students registered to take the first class.
“I am very excited about that,” said Akerboom. 
While the final numbers have not been confirmed Akerboom says enrollment is consistent.
“Our goal is to grow a little bit and overall our school division is. Christ the Redeemer is one of the fastest growing school divisions in the province,” said Akerboom.
Part of growth is retention and new programs like entrepreneurship could help see more students graduate from St. Anthony’s.
To that end, Akerboom said the school also secured a new position funded by the school division to fortify its science and math offerings.
“We want to offer the right amount of courses to have students keep coming to the school,” said Akerboom.
Paula Schuck has been hired to teach math and sciences.
Another premier for St. Anthony’s is this year it will be the first school in the division to offer an electrical program.
“That is thanks to one of our parents. Neil Duncalf has agreed to be a mentor for our teachers and our board has agreed to that. He (Duncalf) actually helped define what we needed in terms of materials and everything,” she said.
Akerboom explains this is a component of the construction program through Alberta Education. She says it is challenging for schools to offer such programs because there are not many teachers with experience in the trades. Teacher Greg Lemieux will be delivering the program.
“We have three more bays and our plan is to get these things off the ground so we’ll have electrical, welding plumbing and small engine repair in the next few years. These are hugely hands on and impactful.”
She adds she wants to continue to build partnerships in the community that could lead to more opportunities for students to pursue careers and opportunities for businesses to bring on students.
There have been some changes at the division 1 level. Maris Weir has been hired to teach Kindergarten and Katelyn Jepson has been hired to teach Grade 1. Melissa Dionisio came to St. Anthony’s last year to fill a maternity leave, and will continue on filling another.
The school division has been greatly affected by June’s flooding. While St. geographically is removed from some of the most affected schools, it showed it cares for those who are still struggling today.
“At the end of last year we raised $4,500 from our little school, it is pretty significant,” said Akerboom. “A number of our teachers went and helped. Our board organized work crews throughout the summer.”
‘This is a really action can-do kind of province and it is wonderful to be here.”
