It’s official — secular classes will begin in two Morinville locations on Sept. 1.
The Sturgeon School Division officially announced on Thursday, Aug. 11, that the new Morinville Public Elementary School will operate with Grades 1 to 4 housed at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre and pre-school and kindergarten programs will be located at the Morinville Parish Hall.
Associate superintendent Mary McGregor said the district is thrilled to be able to fulfil parents’ wishes.
“There’s been a lot of anticipation and a lot of work in getting us to this point from all parties, and we’re certainly very grateful to the parish hall and the Town of Morinville for their cultural centre to get us set up and started for the year,” she said.
The parish hall had already been confirmed as the location for pre-school classes but officials were still finalizing the lease of the parish hall earlier this week. Major contracts have now been signed and packages with transportation information and supply lists went out to parents on Wednesday, Aug. 10, McGregor said.
Sturgeon entered into an agreement earlier this summer to provide secular education options for parents in Morinville after several made the request to Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools, which is the only school board operating in the town.
In late July, news broke that two new modular classrooms that Sturgeon was counting on for space to house the programs may not be installed until December, meaning that students in Grades 1 to 4 would have to be bused to district schools outside Morinville.
But in the past few weeks the division has worked hard to hash out a deal with the Town of Morinville to house those grades in the new community cultural centre, adjacent to Morinville Community High School.
“There’s been much switching of agendas and much support and help, moving one activity here or there to accommodate the classrooms, but we were able to make that happen with the good co-operation of the Town of Morinville,” McGregor said.
Town of Morinville acting CAO Debbie Oyarzun said that, while a final contract had not yet been signed between the two sides as of Monday, they are very close to doing so, and are just working on rescheduling some users to accommodate classes.
“We're able to accommodate the classrooms, and now we’re just working on some of the finer details of the logistics,” Oyarzun said.
One of those users is Morinville town council itself, who are scheduled to hold meetings in the community cultural centre while renovations are completed at St. Germain Plaza on 100 Avenue.
McGregor said that, with an auditorium and stage at the centre, kids won’t be missing out on any amenities that a regular school would have.
“The auditorium is about the size of a gymnasium and they have a stage, so there’s plenty of activity space,” she said, adding that classes will also have access to other spaces in the facility.
It’s a similar situation at the parish hall, where a large auditorium upstairs should provide ample space for pre-school and kindergarten activities, McGregor said.
“We’re going to divide that temporarily into two smaller classroom areas for the small work kids do, but they will still have a large area outside of their smaller classrooms to do their activities,” she said.
The new modular classrooms are still targeted to arrive in December, and will be hooked up to Georges P. Vanier School. One of those modulars was intended to go to GSACRD and be used at Notre Dame School in Morinville.
Parents wishing to register their kids in the secular program can find forms on the district’s website at www.sturgeon.ab.ca and complete them online, fax them to 780-939-5520 or deliver them in person to the central office at 9820 104 St. in Morinville.
The Morinville Public Elementary School office will be located at Georges P. Vanier School (10020 101 Ave.) and will open on Wednesday, Aug. 24. The district will host an open house at their central office on Thursday, Aug. 25, at 2 p.m. where officials and the new principal, Wayne Rufiange, will be available to answer questions.
But, even though things are set for this September, McGregor said the district realizes longer-term plans need to be put in place.
“The minister’s office … GSACRD and ourselves need to have a plan beyond this September,” she said. “It is our plan to move to a Grade 5 program in Morinville next year, because we have Grade 4s this year, and they’ll need somewhere to go next year. But there are some larger issues in terms of how this will look for years to come.”
