Churchill Community High School includes students between Grade 7 and 12. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

education

Fewer CCHS students attending classes

Mar 4, 2025 | 4:28 PM

The attendance rate at La Ronge’s Churchill Community High School has become such a concern the principal has taken to social media to address students and parents.

On Tuesday, Kristianna Mercredi went live on Facebook to let the community know how bad the situation is. In an interview with larongeNOW, she explained the attendance rate is currently at 63 per cent and the school has a goal to increase it to 75 per cent.

“Our attendance is lower than normal at our school and it’s something we identified that we want work on, so we had some meetings and some planning time, and we came up with some strategies,” she remarked.

“One of them was for me to do a Facebook Live and then send out a parent and student survey, so we can find out really why they are not coming to school.”

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Mercredi noted while the attendance rate has been an issue for the entire school year, she added it is not limited to Churchill. She said falling attendance has been a problem throughout Saskatchewan and across the country.

For instance, both Manitoba and British Columbia have provincial action plans in place.

“Honestly, it could be for a variety of reasons,” she said.

“Our community has had lots of sickness going around and we’ve had a lot of deaths in the last couple of months, so that also impacts attendance of course, but I don’t want to assume. We need to hear from our student population and their parents to figure out what’s going on.”

There are a number of incentives at Churchill to encourage students to attend classes. There are different awards given out, free lunches have been provided and there has been talk about giving out prizes. The school also currently has three school counsellors, two success coaches and two student support workers.

Falling attendance is affecting most grades at Churchill with the exception of Grade 7.

Surveys for both parents and students can be accessed online. While they are anonymous, there is the option to self-identify if they’d like to communicate with the school directly.

“We are here to support all of our students in their educational journey and we really enjoy having them here, and that’s why we want them back and we want them to be here, so they can achieve success,” Mercredi said.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com