This Newfoundland school only has 1 student. Here’s what that means for everyone else

A school in rural Newfoundland that’s survived several closure attempts remains open for a single 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 is enrolled at Swift Current Academy, the only school in Swift Current, N.L., an outport of around 200 people that’s about a two hour’s drive from St. John’s.

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

Sixteen school-age children are zoned to attend the school, but most of them decided last year to jump ship, driving long distances in exchange for more classmates and extracurriculars. Seven of them attend school in Clarenville, and eight attend school in Arnold’s Cove. Both communities are around 45 kilometres away from Swift Current.

But those 15 students aren’t eligible for a bus route to those schools since they’re technically zoned for Swift Current Academy. Their parents are responsible for transporting their children to and from school every day, and some have snagged courtesy seats on buses that have extra room.

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

Nancy Barrington, a mother of two living in Swift Current, was the head of the Swift Current Academy school council from 2016 to 2022. Her children now attend school in Clarenville.

With dwindling enrolment and opportunities, parents and students in the community came together last year to make a tough decision.

“Last September was when everybody pretty much decided that they were going to go elsewhere. It was at that time that there were no students registered,” Barrington said.

“One went back to be registered at the school and all the other children went elsewhere.”

Switching to a larger school has been positive for her children. In Swift Current, “there’s no sports teams, there’s no music program, there’s just no extracurricular activities,” she says. 

Clarenville High School has 328 students and offers extracurriculars like volleyball, softball, choir, and concert band. 

“They’re involved with sports teams, they have more friends. There’s just this socializing aspect of it that has been a huge benefit for my children,” she said.

The success of the students is not without consequences for their parents, though. “People work. They’ve got to find the time to go back and forth, and not everybody can carpool. It’s wear and tear on your vehicle,” said Barrington.

“It’s been presenting a lot of difficulties.”

WATCH | No classmates for the lone student at this school in Swift Current:

Keeping this N.L. school open for its single student costs almost $450K every year

It isn’t the first year Swift Current Academy has had one student for the entire school year. Enrollment has been dropping steadily, but the school remains open. The CBC’s Katherine Crummy looks at why it hasn’t been closed and what that means for other kids in the area.

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

There were 56 students enrolled at that time.

Five years later, the school board again said the school should be shuttered, suggesting the 24 students who were enrolled at the time would be bussed to Tricentia Academy in Arnold’s Cove instead.

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

“When the school came up for renewal and review, whether or not we were going to close it, they said it would be up to the parents to decide if it’s going to close. There hasn’t been 100 per cent consent to say that it was going to close. So it’s up to those involved with the school right now,” said Barrington.

“Ultimately, right now it’s one person’s decision whether it stays open or not.” 

The Department of Education refused an interview with CBC.

In a statement, spokesperson Lynn Robinson said “projected and actual enrolment information is used to inform any decisions related to school closures,” along with consultation with the community.

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

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