A rural school in western Alberta with just 36 students has narrowly escaped closure.

The future of Fulham Community School, in Yellowhead County, was in question because enrolment could fall below a provincial funding threshold for rural schools — a drop that would result in a net loss of about $280,000. 

But on Wednesday, the Grande Yellowhead Public School Division (GYPSD) voted 5-2 to keep Fulham open, with the expectation that enrolment will improve through the school’s new natural resources and agricultural curriculum. 

Principal Rose Rumball said Fulham aims to work with the values of the rural families it serves.

“I want kids to know that what their parents do is valuable and it’s needed in our economy,” Rumball said.

“We need farmers. We need pipe fitters. We need welders. We need foresters,” she said. “If kids can see those jobs first-hand in their education system, then they’re more likely to pursue them as a career later in life.”

The school division’s vote comes one day after the Holy Family Catholic Regional Division, based in Peace River, in northwestern Alberta, voted to close École Providence School in the town of McLennan.

Terri-Jean Baillie, president of Fulham’s parent advisory council, hopes the GYPSD’s choice sends a message across Alberta’s education system.

“I think that we’re making history, in terms of showing other school divisions that there’s still value in these small rural schools, and it’s just a matter of looking at it differently,” said Baillie.

Reflecting the local economy

Fulham school’s survival strategy hinges on a shift toward agricultural learning that began when Rumball took over as principal in September.

The school has already — narrowly — passed the 35-student funding threshold for next year’s registration, Rumball said. With its future secured for another year, she plans to create partnerships with organizations such as Alberta Beef Producers, Alberta Pulse Growers and Yellowhead County.

The goal is to create alternative programming that allows students to make “real life connections” to the local economy, Rumball said.

According to Baillie, Fulham has already secured donations for a chicken coop, two beef-cattle, veterinary services and a greenhouse. That adds to the school’s existing garden and trout-hatching programs.

Making Fulham a ‘school of choice’

While the school works on their agricultural program to attract new students, Baillie said current policies have “systematically eroded” enrolment over the last decade. She pointed to a transportation system that, she says, favours urban centres over rural schools.

The GYPSD currently provides “driveway service” for rural students who choose to attend schools in Edson, Alta. However, Baillie says the same service is not provided for Edson families who may wish to send their children about 40 kilometres northwest to Fulham.

“It’s no longer a school of choice. It’s an urban school of choice,” Baillie said. “We’re making it very easy for families to leave our area.”

Of the roughly 90 school-aged kids in the area, Baillie said, most are homeschooled or attend school in Edson — either to be closer to their parents’ work, or have access to after-school programs.

With Fulham’s agricultural focus well underway and its after-school programs being developed, Rumball is looking forward to gauging the potential interest among Edson families to have their kids bused to Fulham.

The school board would consider providing bus services from Edson to Fulham with enough interest, said Melodie Bobilek, board chair for GYPSD.

‘Funding cliff’

The division will revisit the school’s viability, based on enrolment and funding, in April 2027, Bobilek said.

The provincial government did not provide data about rural school closures to CBC News. But in a letter to Education and Childcare Minister Demitrios Nicolaides last month, the GYSPD described a “troubling trend of small rural school closures over the last several years, due to the same rigid funding formulas.”

The Rural Small Schools Grant (RSSG) provides essential funding for staffing and operations in remote areas, but the 35-student cutoff creates a “funding cliff,” where a single registration can jeopardize a school’s viability, Bobliek wrote.

When a school falls below the threshold, funding is based on a per-student allocation.

School boards are expected to use their own financial reserves to address such pressures, Garrett Koehler, Nicolaides’ press secretary, told CBC News in an emailed statement.

“The department’s review shows [GYPSD] has nearly $2 million in operating reserves,” Koehler wrote. 

“Decisions about school operations remain the responsibility of locally elected boards, who are best positioned to balance community needs with available funding.”