The province doesn't want kids to study in the basements of nursing homes, says Alberta's education minister, but it'll be at least three years before students at école Alexandre-Taché can get out of the one they're in now.
About 200 people squeezed into the cafeteria of St. Albert's école Alexandre-Taché Wednesday night for a forum on the school's drive to get a new building. The school, the only francophone high school in the city, is currently crammed into the basement of the Youville nursing home.
The school has grown 79 per cent since it opened three years ago, said Thomas Sutton, a member of the school's parent council, and now has about 140 students.
"We already have classes being held in the library, in the staffroom and in the school lunchroom," he said, and they actually had to block the fire exit to fit Wednesday's event in the cafeteria.
"We lack critical components of any normal high school," he continued, including a gymnasium and CTS lab. "école Alexandre-Taché is not a school that allows for growth."
St. Albert's francophone population is growing, Sutton said, and a new school is needed. He called on Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk to build a new home for the school.
This school has proven its need for a new building, said Lukaszuk, who was at the meeting.
"It is not the desire of Alberta Education to have children studying in the basements of nursing facilities."
But the province has some 400 schools to build in the next decade, he added, and there are other communities with an even greater need for a new school.
"When I have a Fort McMurray school with 23 portables [attached], they're pretty much at the top of the list."
Lukaszuk would not commit to a specific deadline for a new school in St. Albert, since it would depend on financing, but said it probably wouldn't happen within two years.
"I think a more reasonable deadline to set for when everything goes well would be around the three-year mark."
Samantha Dacey, a Grade 11 student at Alexandre-Taché, said she's glad to hear a new school was on its way.
"I feel better knowing that not everyone is going to have the same experience as us — that they're going to be able to graduate from a real school."
Backlog blues
Alexandre-Taché is the most welcoming school she's ever attended, Dacey said, but it's missing critical elements like a gym.
"There are no sports. There are not enough options for me to go further in what I love."
It takes two years to build a school, Lukaszuk said, and a decision to build this one would not come before the province figured out its new fiscal framework — an issue set for discussion after the coming election.
Current accounting rules require Alberta Education to pay the full cost of a new school up front, Lukaszuk said. Since they no longer own the buildings once they turn them over to school boards, they can't amortize the cost over the school's lifespan. One of the goals of the new fiscal framework is to change the rules so the province can speed up school construction.
The province also wants to make schools more functional. Alberta now has 35 per cent too many schools due to high vacancy rates brought on by shifts in student populations, Lukaszuk said.
"I have to make sure we're building more than just schools." He hoped to get St. Albert's community groups, governments and school boards together to make future schools multi-use facilities.
Sutton supported this approach, noting how Sherwood Park's Trillium Centre had a social service office, a Catholic school and public school under one roof.
"There's a huge need [for a school] in St. Albert, whether that's the Protestant school system or the Catholic school system, and there's no reason why we can't start to collaborate with them."
