With future growth meaning more and more students, St. Albert Public Schools' next top priority is a new high school and expanding spaces in existing high schools, Board Chair John Allen told the council during their regular April 15 meeting when he presented the school board's capital plan.
Growing faster than the city
"This year, as in every year, it's a story of growth," Allen said at the start of his presentation.
St. Albert Public is getting set to surpass 10,000 students in the next school year, with enrolment up 41 per cent since 2012. With utilization sitting at 89 per cent with three schools currently over 100 per cent capacity, anticipated future growth means "we need new schools in St. Albert," Allen said.
"St. Albert Public Schools is growing at a rate of three per cent a year, faster than the city itself," he said. In the 2024 municipal census, it was revealed that St. Albert saw an average annual growth rate of 1.51 per cent.
A large driver of growth is young students. With 616 kindergarten students in the 2024-2025 school year, it will mark the fourth year in a row that they've been over 600.
"Our kindergartens are the largest they've ever been," he said.
Additional high school space a top priority
A new high school is now the school board's number one priority, with a replacement for Paul Kane adding 250 student spaces, the expansion and modernization of Bellerose Composite High School is expected to be complete in fall 2026, Allen's presentation slides said.
The third part of their plan to add new high school space is a new 1,650-student high school in Erin Ridge North.
"The residents are coming. And we need schools in the right places and the right sizes in order to give them the kind of education that they deserve," he said.
Chérot and additional priorities
Allen also was thankful for the Chérot site, which was fully funded through the province's $8.6 billion accelerator program, announced in March 2025. The school would sit on the 25 acre community amenities site, of which St. Albert Public Schools has been allocated 10 acres for their 900 student K-9 school. The site is currently designated as a high school, although St. Albert Public Schools continues to request that council changes its designation.
"Why the amenities site for that school? It's the right place, it's the right size for kids that age, it's too small for a high school, and the other potential site in Chérot is a little too close to a future build," Allen said.
Allen also pointed the critical need for new modulars. Currently, there are 112 modular units around St. Albert Public Schools, housing 2,800 students, Allen said in his presentation. Of those, 46 are over 30-years-old, and four are 50-years-old.
This emphasizes "the need for more new schools but we will replace the oldest modulars as quickly as we can," Allen said. He said the cost for a modular classroom ranges between $200,000 and $250,000.
