Rocky View School Division continues to grow.

At the RVS Board meeting preliminary numbers were released in the school opening report.  An increase of 1168 students from August 2015 have registered in the division, bringing the total student population to 22,603 as of August 31.

That number is still expected to fluctuate as registrations are still trickling in.

The highest groupings in the division is being seen at the kindergarten and grade 3 levels, according to RVS Superintendent Greg Luterbach.

"At kindergarten we have approximately 1925 students and that's our largest group other than grade 3, and at grade 3 we have currently 1945 kids across the division."

Luterbach says with high grouping numbers at younger grades, RVS will continue it's push for new schools.

"The trustees have been talking and submitted to Alberta Education a plan for the next 10 years, given the age of our students we are going to need both middle schools and high schools as our kids get older- we are certainly going to feel the pressure at high schools. But at the same time we have lots of new communities coming on line and we're going to need elementary schools spread out throughout almost every corner of the division throughout the next 10 years.

Three new schools. opened their doors for the first time on September 1. Airdrie saw Cooper's Crossing (K-4) and Heloise Lorimer (K-8), while Cochrane's RancheView (K-8) saw a staged opening with only K-2 students attending the new facility. RancheView is expected to open in entirety later in the year.

RVS looks forward to 2017/18 as Airdrie will see another new school in the community of Windsong, as well as an expansion at Herons Crossing. Some pressure will also be taken off of Cochrane schools as Fireside School (K-8) is also expected to open it's doors.

RVS has 1165 full time equivalent teachers, 546 full time support staff, 43 principals, and 58 assistant principals.

Luterbach adds despite predictions that RVS would see a slow down with the downturned economy, that is not the case. In fact the division this year has grown more than they originally predicted. With growth comes challenges, but Luterbach is happy with how trustees, staff, and principals always manage to put students in the centre of the decisions they make.