Government announces plans for new K-9 school in Windermere

CTV Edmonton: New school announced for SW Edmonton There’s some relief coming for crowded classes in southwest Edmonton, as the province announced a new school for the area.

The provincial government unveiled plans Monday for two new schools, one for each of the province’s largest cities.

In Edmonton, the new school will be built in Windermere and have space for 750 students from Kindergarten to Grade 9 for Edmonton Catholic Schools.

It’s expected the new school will help relieve enrollment pressures in southwest Edmonton, a number of other schools in the rapidly growing part of the city have been dealing with overcrowding in recent years.

Premier Alison Redford was on hand to announce the Edmonton project Monday, at Archbishop Joseph MacNeil School in Windermere.

“We’re working hard to get this done as soon as we possibly can,” Redford said. “Because we know how important it is for those 750 kids, those 750 spaces to be ready as soon as possible, so that families can enroll their kids and they won’t have to take buses out of their communities.”

The province said the new school would provide spaces for the many families moving into that part of the city.

“As the premier mentioned, 136,000 people are moving to Alberta,” Edmonton-Southwest MLA Matt Jeneroux said. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see a lot of them are moving to southwest Edmonton.”

The second project is slated to be built in Aspen Woods, in Calgary; it will also have space for 750 students from Kindergarten to Grade 6.

Officials said the school projects announced Monday are two of six new schools for Alberta being announced in December – the province said all of those schools will provide new spots for 4,200 students.

In the long-term, the project is also part of a pledge to build 50 new schools in the province by 2016; however, Redford’s critics said it’s a promise that will be difficult to keep.

There is no timeline for the new school in Edmonton; the Chair of Edmonton Catholic Schools told CTV News she hopes the new school will open its doors in 2018 – two years after Redford’s promise to build the schools by 2016.

Redford told CTV News in her year-end interview Monday that the province was using methods such as using the same designs for multiple schools – saving money and time.

“I think we’re on track,” Redford said. “I think that as infrastructure begins to ramp up and we’ve had to make a lot of changes to the system that there’s been not perhaps, the number of announcements, but I think we’ll be good for 2016.”

Critics questioned the series of announcements, but little construction.

“What we are getting here is a government that is announcing new schools, there are no dates, no commitments and we don’t know who is building these schools,” NDP Education Critic Deron Bilous said.

“I would just say, fewer photo ops, fewer signs and more shovels in the ground,” Wildrose Education Critic Bruce McCallister said.

Alberta Education said 36 announced projects are in the design and planning stages.

With files from Susan Amerongen