The province plans to meet with Morinville parents next month to solve a space crunch at Morinville Public, says the town's MLA.
But parents say that there's only one solution that works, and that's to build a new public school.
Morinville Public School parents launched a petition and letter-writing campaign Oct. 12 to lobby for a new public junior/senior high school in Morinville.
The campaign started in the wake of the province's decision earlier this month to build a new Catholic elementary school in town.
Morinville's non-Catholic community also needs a new school, said Marjorie Kirsop, who has three children at Morinville Public. That school now has about 540 students and expects 120 more next year, which will put it well over its capacity of 571.
The school now hosts Grades K to 7, but has none of the facilities needed for junior high as the building was designed as an elementary school, she continues.
"There's no science lab, there's no kitchen, there's no art and drama. All the other programs you'll find anywhere else are not available at our school."
The Change.org petition, which calls on education minister Gordon Dirks and Premier Jim Prentice to build a junior/senior high school in Morinville as soon as possible, had about 610 signatures as of Tuesday morning.
Parents should not have to bus their kids out of town to get public education in a town of 9,400, Kirsop said.
"If K to 12 is mandatory, you need to provide a school for these kids to attend," she said.
"We need to be able to educate those kids locally."
Space crunch
Morinville Public's population has exploded since it first opened with about 60 students in 2011.
If the school keeps growing at its current rate, it won't have enough classrooms to fit everyone next year, said Sturgeon School Division superintendent MichÈle Dick.
"This is a very serious matter for us."
Dick said she was surprised, disappointed and extremely concerned when she learned that the province had not announced a new public school for Morinville earlier this month. That school was the top item on the capital item wish-list the board sends to Alberta Education each year, and she had met with local MLAs Maureen Kubinec and Jeff Johnson (the former education minister) many times on the issue.
Morinville students who want to stay in the public system after Grade 7 have to bus to schools out of town. If they want to stay in town, they have to attend a Catholic school.
Kirsop said she didn't want to send her kids to a Catholic school just to keep them in town.
"We're not religious … I don't want my kid to be educated in a Catholic school. I want public education for my children."
Kubinec said both Morinville's public and Catholic board school populations are growing very fast, and both had asked for new schools. She wasn't sure why the Catholic board got one this time when the public board didn't, but speculated that it could have been an issue of timing and paperwork.
Alberta Education, Sturgeon School Division, and town officials will meet with select staff and parents of Morinville Public on either Nov. 5 or 6 to clarify the school's needs and how best to meet them, Kubinec said. (Exact details of the meeting are still in the works.)
"Modulars can happen fairly quickly," she suggested, and a "starter school" of modulars like the ones proposed for Calgary was not off the table.
"What we want to ensure is to make sure these students have access to high quality classrooms as soon as possible."
While pleased by news of the meeting, Kirsop said that modulars were not a solution.
"Our goal is pretty clear. We actually want a new public junior high in town," she said.
"Anything else is unacceptable."
