Reaction to Provincial Funding Announcement
September 19, 2024
The Government of Alberta announced it is committing $8.6 billion through the new School Construction Accelerator Program. The program is designed to create more than 200,000 new and modernized learning spaces to address rising enrolment.
Starting in Budget 2025, Alberta’s government will support up to 30 new schools and as many as eight modernizations and replacement schools yearly for the next three years. Read the full announcement here.
Statement from Board Chair Sandra Palazzo
We are grateful for the province’s commitment to building new schools and adding more modulars. We look forward to learning more details about this announcement so that we can understand the immediate and long-term impact of the School Construction Accelerator Program on our Division.
Edmonton Catholic Schools anticipates that we will reach an enrolment of 50,000 students this year. About half of our schools are full or over capacity. As a result, almost every available space is being utilized for teaching and learning. In schools where accommodating extra students is no longer an option, we’ve had to implement temporary measures, redirecting certain grades to other schools. This has been understandably difficult and disruptive for our families. We are in urgent need of new schools to serve growing areas and modulars to support our existing schools.
All six of our Year 1 projects on the Capital Plan are site-ready. In order to meet the unprecedented growth we are experiencing, we need to move forward with shovels in the ground on all of these projects.
The Capital Plan includes two new high schools in Lewis Farms and the Meadows, which would provide 3,600 desperately needed high school spaces in our city.
In our last modular request, we asked for 49 new classrooms. We were grateful for the 33 we received, but we need 100% of the ask. New schools are solutions for tomorrow, and modulars are solutions for today. If we receive additional modulars, we will be better situated to address some of our overcrowded classrooms immediately.
We are so appreciative of these additional learning spaces, which will hopefully provide much-needed relief in addressing our enrolment pressures and help ensure we can continue delivering an excellent Catholic education to our current and future students, no matter where they live in the city.
What does this mean for ECSD schools dealing with overcapacity?
The announcement of new schools and additional modular classrooms is good news for families whose children are learning in full or overcapacity schools. However, it typically takes about three to four years from the time a project is announced until the school is built and operational.
The additional modulars announced in the School Construction Accelerator Program will be for the 2025-2026 school year and beyond. Our Division will continue to work with the province to develop a modular plan to provide relief to the schools that need it most. The long-term solution lies in building new schools to accommodate the rapidly growing student population.
While this is a positive step forward, we are still waiting for more details on how these announcements will specifically impact the timeline and scope of relief for schools currently facing overcrowding. Until the new schools are built, we will continue to work closely with our school communities and the province to best support our students, staff, and families.