SJR to end boarding amid drop in foreign students

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This article was published 10/12/2024 (342 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

St. John’s-Ravenscourt School is winding down boarding operations after 75 years of housing students, many of whom moved to Winnipeg from overseas, at the institution that prides itself on being the oldest of its kind in Western Canada.

The co-ed private school at 400 South Dr. is among a handful of institutions that operate residences for elementary and secondary students in Manitoba.

Head of school Jim Keefe informed community members on Monday that SJR is phasing out housing services and will no longer recruit new residents as of September 2025.

“At its peak, boarding students made up a significant proportion of the school’s enrolment and added much to the rich tapestry of life at the school,” Keefe wrote in a memo to families.

“Today, while our boarding population adds much to the school, it makes up less than one per cent of our community.”

Thirty-seven students were registered in the university-preparatory school’s residences in 2019-20. This year, there are only eight.

Keefe said recent events, including COVID-19 pandemic-related recruitment challenges and building capacity constraints, have made it increasingly challenging to sustain the boutique program for students in grades 8 through 12.

The federal government’s new cap on international study permits, a drop in domestic interest in boarding schools, and the effect of “significant geopolitical risks” on traditional candidate markets contributed to the decision, he noted.

Andrew Micklefield, executive director of the Manitoba Federation of Independent Schools, said he’s only aware of three traditional schools that offer boarding: Winnipeg’s SJR and Balmoral Hall School; as well as Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna.

(The Royal Winnipeg Ballet recently opened a specialty boarding facility equipped with dance and fitness studios for young performers to hone their craft while working on academics at RWB classrooms.)

Balmoral Hall spokeswoman Jennifer Pawluk said numerous factors are affecting boarding enrolment, from the fallout of pandemic-era travel restrictions to challenges related to family finances.

Pawluk noted the all-girls school was inundated with boarding applications when it originated in 1901 as Havergal College.

Demand was so high that, even three days prior to opening, administrators were in the process of hiring additional staff at the school later renamed Rupert’s Land College, and which became Balmoral Hall after a 1950 amalgamation with Riverbend School.

About 25 students live in its modern apartment complex in West Broadway, down from the pre-pandemic average that hovered between 50 and 60.

While noting school programs often undergo reviews, Pawluk said the administration is proud to offer housing to domestic and international students registered in Grade 6 and up.

Rural families often register so their daughters can take advantage of the competitive hockey program, she said.

“It still brings tremendous value to those families that are looking for that experience, either for English language learning, for their (daughters’) hockey aspirations, as well as just that university-preparatory experience,” the communications director said.

SJR’s head of school was not available for an interview Tuesday.

In an email to the Free Press, Keefe said the co-ed academy’s boarding numbers peaked in the ’70s and represented about 25 per cent of the overall student population.

The private school administrator said it was around the same time that interest in campus housing began to shift from domestic pupils to international students.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca