Holy Spirit Catholic School Division looks back on a year of great numbers

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on January 3, 2025.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

As the Holy Spirit Catholic School Division waves good-bye to 2024, board chair Carmen Mombourquette says they received many blessings and are looking forward to many more in 2025.
One of the key highlights of the year for Mombourquette was an increase in high school graduates within the division, reaching record numbers.
“The recent Assurance Report data from the Ministry of Education indicate that while just over 80 per cent of young Albertans graduated from high school, last year over 92 per cent of our students hit this milestone in their lives,” he says.
This fall, many high school graduates transitioned into post-secondary institutions in numbers higher than their provincial counterparts.
 “Typically, just over 40 per cent of Albertans go into post-secondary right after high school,” says Mombourquette. “But close to 55 per cent of our students take this next step.”
 In addition, he says an increasing number of students moved directly into a trade, as they had already completed the first year of apprenticeship by participating in the Registered Apprenticeship Program while they were in high school.
“This heightened high school graduation number is also true for students who self-identify as Indigenous,” Mombourquette points out. “Provincially, less than 70 per cent of Indigenous students graduate from high school within five years of entering Grade 10, in Holy Spirit Schools this percent tops 81 per cent.”
On various provincial surveys, holy Spirit students, parents, and teachers report their schools are safe, warm, and welcoming.
 “Over 90 percent indicate that they believe schools deliver a high quality education. Close to 88 per cent note that students are actively engaged in their learning, and 87 per cent believe that our students value citizenship,” says Mombourquette, adding the numbers are higher than the provincial average.
Another milestone reached in 2024 is the profound respect shown by students towards faith development, which Mombourquette says is important in a faith-based education system.
“Even in this era of what appears to be a societal decline in faithfulness, 95 per cent of our elementary students report that their school is a Catholic community that helps them to understand the Catholic faith and that they were encouraged and given the opportunity to live their faith in the school and in the community.”
 He adds that 89 percent of Holy Spirit junior high and high school students expressed that their school reflected a Catholic worldview that contributes to a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith and that they were encouraged and given the opportunity to live their faith actively in the school and in the community.
Heading into 2025, the school division is reflecting on the blessings received and has a number of resolutions expressed as hopes for the coming year.

 “We are so thankful that the construction of a new Catholic elementary school is ready to go to tender and should be in operation in the fall of 2026,” says Mombourquette. “This school will help alleviate a lack of space for elementary students in West Lethbridge.”
One of the big asks for the coming year is a modernization of St. Francis Junior High School. The school was gifted to the people of Holy Spirit School Division back in the late 1950s.”The building itself is now old, tired, and is lacking in key spaces for the offering of a 21st Century education,” says Mombourquette.
 St. Francis is the last of the old junior high buildings in the Lethbridge area to not undergo a modernization and Holy Spirit has out of room to put the ever-increasing number of students.
 “Both of our junior highs in the City of Lethbridge are at 99 per cent capacity,” says Mombourquette. “And every space is utilized to its max, including a broom closet as an office.”
 Alberta Infrastructure guidelines indicate that a school is “full” when it reaches 85 per cent capacity, which makes both St. Francis Junior High School and Father Leonard Van Tighem School above “full.”
 “Despite its numerous and serious building shortcomings, the staff at St. Francis continue to go above and beyond and offer the students a first-rate education,” says Mombourquette. “We need to keep the staff, but for goodness sake, replace the building.”
Speaking of staff, Mombourquette says he really wants to see fair and reasonable contracts negotiated with all three of unions which include the Alberta Teachers’ Association, CUPE 1825, and CUPE 290.
 “I suspect even Santa might be entering into negotiations with the elves as it seems every union contract throughout the country is up for settlement right now,” says Mombourquette.
 He adds that he would love to see a re-worked education funding formula arrive in the 2025 provincial budget. Alberta’s tradition of welcoming newcomers from all over the world has led to an unprecedented increase in student enrolment throughout the province and most certainly in the Holy Spirit School Division.
“The current funding formula, one that was meant to help alleviate issues caused by decreasing enrolment, has not allowed our board to fully fund education as increasing numbers of students walked through our doors. We now need to move to a permanent funding formula, one that automatically accommodates growth.”
The increase in student enrolment has been in part due to an increase in students from other faith backgrounds being enrolled in holy Spirit schools.
“(Parents) are enrolling their children in our schools because they see faith as being one of the elements that helps make a well-rounded child into becoming a very active citizen,” says Mombourquette. “And because Catholic schools in Alberta are publicly funded.”
He says that they have noticed the excitement of recent immigrants to Canada in realizing that their children can be exposed to a faith-based way of understanding the world without having to pay tuition fees.

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