There is only 1 student at this school in Newfoundland. Here’s what this means for everyone else

A one-story school with stairs — Only one student attends Swift Current Academy in rural Newfoundland, and it costs the province almost $450,000 to keep the school open. (Mark Cumby/CBC News)

A school in rural Newfoundland that has survived several closure attempts remains open for one student, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and causing grief for parents in the community.

For the second school year in a row, one student enrolls at Swift Current Academy, the only school in Swift Current, NL, with approximately 200 students and approximately a two-hour drive from St. John’s.

The school currently employs one teacher who also serves as principal, custodian, secretary and bus driver.

Sixteen school-age children are expected to attend the school, but most of them decided to jump ship last year, traveling long distances in exchange for more classmates and extracurricular activities. Seven of them attend school in Clarenville and eight attend school in Arnold’s Cove. Both communities are approximately 25 miles from Swift Current.

However, these 15 students are not eligible to bus to these schools because they are technically in the Swift Current Academy zone. Their parents are responsible for transporting their children to and from school every day, and some of them have taken extra seats on buses with more space.

But as long as Swift Current Academy exists, they won’t get their own transportation.

Nancy Barrington, a Swift Current mother of two, served as Swift Current Academy school board president from 2016-2022. Her children currently attend school in Clarenville.

Faced with dwindling enrollment and opportunities, parents and students from across the community came together last year to make a difficult decision.

“Last September, almost everyone decided to go somewhere else. There were no students registered at that time,” Barrington said.

“One came back to enroll in school and all the other children went elsewhere.”

Woman with curly hair in a blue jacket — Last year, Nancy Barrington took her children out of Swift Current Academy to give them better opportunities, but it was taking a toll on her family. (Mark Cumby/CBC Newa)

The move to a larger school has been positive for her children. In Swift Current, “there are no sports teams, there is no music program, there are just no extracurricular activities,” he says.

Clarenville High School has 328 students and offers extracurricular activities such as volleyball, softball, choir and band.

“They are involved in sports teams, they have more friends. It was this social aspect that really benefited my children,” she said.

However, students’ successes are not without consequences for their parents. “People work. They have to find time to travel back and forth, and not everyone can travel together. There is wear and tear on the vehicle,” Barrington said.

“It caused a lot of difficulties.”

WATCH | No classmates for a single student at this Swift Current school:

It costs almost 450,000 to keep this school in the Netherlands open for a single student. dollars per year

This isn’t the first year Swift Current Academy has had one student for the entire school year. Enrollment continues to decline, but the school remains open. CBC’s Katherine Crummy looks at why the facility hasn’t closed and what that means for other children in the area.

The province has debated closing Swift Current Academy for many years. In 2012, the Newfoundland and Labrador Eastern School District, now NLSchools, proposed closing the school and adding a bus route to take students to Clarenville.

There were 56 students attending the school at that time.

Five years later, the school board again stated that the school should be closed, suggesting that the 24 students then enrolled would instead be bused to Tricentia Academy in Arnold’s Cove.

A 2017 report calculated that the move would save the school system $440,000 a year.

“When the school asked for renewal and to see if we were going to close it or not, they said it would be up to the parents to decide whether it would close. There wasn’t 100% agreement that the school was going to close, so it all depends on people associated with the school now,” Barrington said.

“At the end of the day, it’s up to one person to decide whether it stays open or not.”

The Department of Education declined to be interviewed by CBC.

In a statement, spokeswoman Lynn Robinson said “projected and actual enrollment information is used to make all school closure decisions” and consults with the community.

Robinson did not directly respond to a question about whether the department was considering closing the school.

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