Student enrollment at School District 58 doesn’t look like it will rebound from the dip it took last year when the labour strife between teachers and government delayed the start of the school year by two weeks.

SD 58 Superintendent Steve McNiven said the number of students enrolled in a full-time equivalency (FTE) in SD58 is an estimated 2,077 headed into the start of school next week.

Last September, the school district had 2,067 students enrolled full-time for the start of the school year.

The delayed school year saw the district down 62 FTE students from the year before.

In 2013, there were 2,129 students enrolled at SD58 schools at the start of the school year, which was down only slightly from the 2,138 students enrolled at the start of the 2012-13 year.

“It’s nice to come in with a regular start, and a positive feeling of coming back on time,” McNiven said. “It was a challenging start last year.”

SD 58 has added some new names to its roster of teachers for 2015-16, half of whom are substitute teachers, also known as teaching on call (TTOC).

There are 18 new teachers who are being added in the school district. Nine are TTOCs, and eight are filling temporary or continuous contracts at brick and mortar schools. One new teacher has been added at the South Central Interior Distance Education School (SCIDES), which is located at the Kengaard Learning Centre in Merritt.

There are three teachers within the district who are moving over to teach out of SCIDES as well this year from the traditional brick and mortar schools.

Last year six teachers in SD 58 retired.

Two new teachers have been brought in at Merritt Secondary School, one will teach at John Allison Elementary, two will be placed at Nicola Canford Elementary and Diamond Vale Elementary, and one will teach at Collettville Elementary, SD58 Superintendent Steve McNiven told the Herald.

Most of the new teachers in the district come from within B.C. and some have worked as TTOCs as well, McNiven said.

Schools around SD58 should look a bit polished this school year. Over the summer there were four different schools that had their roofs upgraded, new flooring was installed in eight classrooms throughout the district, bathrooms at Merritt Secondary School and Central Elementary School were renovated, a garden was dug at Nicola Canford Elementary, and new paint and siding was added on to portables at Merritt Bench Elementary.

Next spring the school district will be getting greater bandwidth McNiven said.

“We want to improve the quality of our learning environments,” he said.