The replacement of Paul Kane and planned modernization of Bellerose Composite High School will help alleviate some pressures for St. Albert Public Schools, but the school division says it still needs a new high school imminently.
The division had a 20-per-cent increase in its Kindergarten to Grade 9 enrolment in the last five years, and that exploding population is going to need high school spaces as they move through the grades. This year, the division had 612 Kindergarten students register – the highest in history. Almost every grade cohort grew in size.
“The pressure is that right now, we don't have enough room for kids in Grade 7 to go to high school in St. Albert,” Edwards said.To accommodate the growing size of the student population, the division has been using 49 old portables and 54 new modulars (both types of temporary classrooms) to house more than 2,000 students.
With the population growth in the younger grades, the board said the expansions and rebuilds of the two existing schools will not be able to accommodate the entire future high school population in the city. The board has highlighted a need for a brand new high school, but no funding has been allocated for that yet.
The Paul Kane school rebuild received funding from the province in 2018, and associate superintendent of finance Michael Brenneis said the school is on track to open in 2022. Brenneis said the school division has assurances the UCP government plans to continue to fund the rebuild.
“We got assurances that Paul Kane is still on track and still going forward. So targeting tendering late winter (or) early spring and construction, beginning in spring for completion and an opening of September 2022.”
Glenys Edwards, board chair for St. Albert Public, said the additional high school space is badly needed in their school division and represents the first phase of their high school expansion plan.
The second phase of the school division’s plan is the modernization and expansion of Bellerose High School, which the board hopes will increase the student population at Bellerose from 1,165 to 1,650. The board received funding for the detailed design work for that project from the provincial government earlier this month, and Brenneis said they are confident further funding will be coming for the school build down the road.
“We have heard from the minister that they're not funding the studies unless they have the intent of doing the projects,” Brenneis said.
The government said it could not reveal the dollar amount allocated for Bellerose, as it wants to keep the money for design work mum as to not influence the bidding process.
The school board said St. Albert Public has expressed interest in a new high school being built in the northeast of the city (preferably in tandem with a potential recreation facility) where St. Albert's population is growing rapidly, and to geographically balance out the division's other two high schools.
Edwards said the divison also needs more space for its younger kids and hopes to get funding for a new Kindergarten to Grade 9 school in Riverside within the next five years.
The Bellerose modernization was one of 25 new school projects announced by Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange in early November. LaGrange said the design process for high schools can take anywhere from a year and a half to three years. The division's hope is the modernization will add an additional 500 students to Bellerose's 1,165 population.
