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Bellerose High gets funding for modernization, expansion

District hopes an updated and expanded Bellerose can house 1,650 students.
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Students pour out of Bellerose Composite High School in April 2018.

Bellerose Composite High School will be getting design money from the provincial government for a new addition and a facelift.

On Friday morning, Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange revealed funding for 25 new school projects totalling $397 million, including the design money for a Bellerose addition and modernization.

The Budget 2019 capital plan includes 15 new schools. Six other schools are slated for replacement and four will receive modernizations or additions.

Glenys Edwards, board chair for St. Albert Public schools, said the additional high school space is badly needed in the city.

“Our district definitely sees this as a positive move forward. The modernization and expansion of Bellerose is the number one priority currently in our 10-year capital plan,” Edwards said.

“Although this isn't funding for the building of the project, it is certainly a small but significant step forward. The government is recognizing our need for this build. And they're prepared now to put some provincial dollars define the scope of the project.”

LaGrange said on Friday that the design process for high schools can take anywhere from a year and a half to three years, but said the schools receiving design funding will be built.

"It would make no sense to allocate dollars for design if the intention was that we wouldn't move forward on the build," LaGrange said.

The government said they could not reveal the dollar amount allocated for Bellerose, as they want to keep the money for design work mum as to not influence the bidding process.

The current student population at Bellerose is 1,165 and the board hopes the addition will get enrolment up to 1,650.

Paula Power, spokesperson for the school division, said St. Albert Public is very happy to see the money get allocated to its district.

“We are extremely pleased to see this going ahead, as this will be much-needed space for our growing school division,” Power said.

“It’s the second phase of our three-part high school accommodation plan. A few years ago, the provincial government undertook a feasibility study to determine how to best meet the high school needs of our division. We have had rapid, steady growth in our elementary years and that group of students will be moving up to high school soon,” Power said

Edwards said they have had a 20-per-cent increase in the Kindergarten to Grade 9 enrolment in the last five years and that exploding population is going to need space to go to high school in the community.

Right now, Edwards said the Kindergarten to Grade 9 population is overflowing in their schools, with most of their portable and temporary classrooms being used up by the younger cohort.

To contend with the growing population, the district put forward a three-phased approach to manage their students. The first phase was to get funding for Paul Kane High School, which the district was approved for in March 2018. The school will be built on the same school site. At the time the Paul Kane High School had 1,036 students and the new building will increase capacity to 1,500.

It is expected that Paul Kane High School will be open for students in Fall 2022. The projected completion date for Bellerose Composite High School has not been determined yet and once the design work is completed the district will have a clearer picture on the timeline.

Despite the increased capacity added to high school spaces in the city from the two funding announcements, the district will still be short on high school space. The third phase of the district's plan to accommodate students is to get a new high school built in the north east area of the city but there has been no funding allocated for that project yet.

Along with needing more space for high school students, the district needs more space for its younger kids.

Edwards said they are hoping to get funding for a new Kindergarten to Grade 9 school in Riverside within five years.

The chair said the district is dealing with an infrastructure deficit when it comes to schools, as the city did not get a single new school for 25 years and the district is now left to catch up with the rapid population growth. The school drought was broken when they got funding for Lois E. Hole Elementary School, which opened in 2017 with space for 600 students, and Joseph M. Demko School, which opened in 2019 with space for 900 students.

The announcement on Friday also allocated money for the Morinville Community High School CTS modernization, which is part of the Greater St. Albert Catholic School division and a new elementary and junior high school in Legal in the Greater North Central Francophone Education Region.


Jennifer Henderson

About the Author: Jennifer Henderson

Jennifer Henderson is the editor of the St. Albert Gazette and has been with Great West Media since 2015
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