The St. Albert Public School Board is one step closer to one of their goals of having a K-9 school for the Chérot neighbourhood, following a notice a motion brought forward by Coun. Sheena Hughes to debate redesignating the site from a high school to a school at an upcoming council meeting.
St. Albert Public Schools Trustee Kristi Rouse was before council on March 4 and attended a Standing Committee of the Whole meeting on March 11, asking for the Chérot school site to be redesignated from a high school to a school, to align with their preference of making the site a K-9.
"That will allow us the flexibility should we receive an announcement through the accelerator program to put a school there," Rouse said in an interview on March 7. "A K-9 is preferable when you consider things like traffic, parking, safety."
Hughes said her reason for bringing the motion forward was because she doesn't want the city to potentially be a limiting factor in the board being awarded a school, should an announcement be made through the province's School Construction Accelerator Program (SCAP).
"If the school boards are looking at this and saying 'well, we'd really like to put a different type of school there other than a high school' it shouldn't be the city's prerogative to decide that," Hughes said during a March 7 interview.
Through the Accelerator Program, the province committed $8.6 billion to create about 50,000 new and modernized student spaces over the next three years, including building up to 90 new schools. Rouse said that the Accelerator Program is an opportunity the division "can't pass up" with the division set to surpass 10,000 students in 2025.
At the March 11 Standing Committee of the Whole meeting, Rouse said the potential new designation is "important as we move through our next steps towards multi-million dollar educational infrastructure investments in our community.
Hughes also hopes that the possibility of redesignating will give the city more flexibility in what to do with the Community Amenities Site.
"If we were to put a K-9 there, in addition to the lesser parking demands, we'd have an opportunity to further increase the green space in that area and further increase the park area," she said.
"With that newfound space that is realized from having a smaller school on that site, I think there's all kinds of opportunities in terms of what parks and recreation would like to do," Rouse told the Standing Committee of the Whole on March 11. "Academy programs are popular, as are our minor sports organizations -- I think -- would be really keen to expand on those amenities as well."
Superintendent Krimsen Sumners said that they've considered making the site a 7-12 in response to a question from St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron, but that with the modernizations at Bellerose Composite High School, that the area is already well supported, which is why they went to a K-9.
"Given the growth of Riverside and in Chérot, we know that we need a K-9 in that area," Sumners said. She added that she's reasonably confident that they'll hear something about their number one request of a K-9 through the province, given the work the school board has done and the province's commitment to building schools.
Hughes expects the topic of the Chérot school site designation to come up for debate at the April 1 council meeting.
