‘Bureaucracy and inaction’: New high school for Warman still up in the air after 3 years

WATCH: Parents in Warman, Sask. are saying the area can't wait any longer to build a new joint-use high school which was proposed three years ago.

Parents in Warman, Saskatchewan are saying the area can’t wait any longer to build a new joint-use high school, which was proposed three years ago.

“This is being held up due to bureaucracy and inaction,” said Laura Davies, a concerned Warman parent. “All parties need to come to the table.”

Discussions for a new high school began in 2022. Similar to Saskatoon’s Tommy Douglas Collegiate and Bethlehem Catholic High School, an application from the Prairie Spirit School Division and Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools to the Ministry of Education for funding to build a joint-use high school that would have a Catholic and public high school in one location was submitted.

The preferred location is an area between Martensville and Warman on the R.M. of Corman Park land near Township Road 384 to service both communities.

When the application for funding was submitted, all three local municipalities supported the application via a signed memorandum of understanding. However, at a council meeting later that year, the City of Warman decided not to write a letter of support.

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Three years later, council’s main concern is still the proposed location.

“Right now, every student would need to be bused,” Warman mayor Gary Philipchuk said.

“So we’re moving from 600 students that have services and have restaurants and everything else from Warman, and it would probably have the same amount for Martinsville, that will need to go there and back on a regular basis,” Philipchuk said.

Philipchuk would ideally prefer to have a school in Warman and a school in Martensville or have the joint-use school within city limits, where infrastructure is already in place.

With so many details to be worked out, he’s unsure of how costly the project could become and how that will be divvied among all the parties.

“That becomes a challenge. There’s a lot of things that need to be spent and a lot of unknowns as far as the total expenses to be able to make something like that happen with cities of our size,” Philipchuk said.

Philipchuk is a former vice-principal of Warman High School and understands the need for a new school in the coming years. He supports the project and wouldn’t be surprised if it’s announced as part of next year’s provincial government budget, but he wants his residents to know that the challenges he’s highlighting will ultimately fall to their tax bill if they’re not addressed ahead of time.

“If it’s building a school and our community wants a school (and) it doesn’t matter where it’s located, then we have to listen to that,” he said.

Davies, who created Future Forward for Warman Education as a parent-led coalition to get a regional school built, wants Philipchuk and his counterparts to make a deal happen.

“If there has been hesitancy by anyone involved, they’ve had three years to sort that out,” she said. “At this point in time, us as parents, we want these people coming to the table, ironing out their details and then getting shovels in the ground as soon as possible.”

Long known as the province’s fastest growing city and one of the fastest growing cities in Canada, Warman’s rapid expansion has led to rapid enrolment growth.

Prairie Spirit School Division says enrolment at the school is currently at 103 per cent with 751 students attending the school as of last fall.

In the 2025-2026 budget tabled earlier this year includes $191 million for school capital and five new schools, but the regional school near Warman wasn’t included.

The school is listed at the top of the Ministry of Education’s Top 10 major capital priorities for the year, but there’s no indication if the school will be included in next year’s budget.

“Our government will continue to collaborate with school divisions to ensure that the location for a new school is one that best serves the need of students and families in the surrounding area,” a statement from the ministry read.

Davies says construction needs to be a top priority for everyone involved before learning outcomes are compromised.

“This is the solution that’s on the table, and this is the critical need that we have that we all have to address,” she said.