Back before council for the second time in as many meetings, St. Albert Public Schools trustee Kristi Rouse had again done her homework.
Joined by superintendent Krimsen Sumners and associate superintendent Michael Brenneis, Rouse showed councillors a table that outlined the “student tsunami” that has filled public schools in the city to the brink, and urged council to take advantage of a new provincial program to create more space for students.
Rouse pointed to one kindergarten cohort of 598 kids that grew 51 per cent to include 904 students who are now in Grade 10. It was far from the only example. Another slide in her presentation featured an opened can of sardines.
“The need for a properly-sized site has been there for over five years,” she said Nov. 19.
Last week, Coun. Sheena Hughes signalled her intent to bring a motion calling on city staff to come up with a strategy to service a proposed high school site in Erin Ridge North at the Nov. 19 meeting. On Tuesday, she backed off on asking her colleagues to waive a 20-day waiting period and allow the motion to be debated immediately.
Hughes said she would leave the motion to come up at a meeting in December. She said she may even withdraw it altogether, or work with staff on an alternate wording.
“Today’s backgrounder was very enlightening about every single thing that was in there,” she said. “It was also enlightening to hear from Landrex and the board and get some more perspectives.”
That seven-page backgrounder from the engineering department included 225 words on the risks posed by leapfrogging the school site project over all others and said an “ideal scenario” would see the school site shovel-ready in 2027.
“Targeted focus to a single parcel versus consideration of the developer needs and desired outcomes for the larger area or the consideration of precedence being set may be a liability for addressing future development applications.”
Hughes said she would continue to work with staff on the file and may even withdraw the motion calling for a plan to be presented by February.
Rouse said in an email to the Gazette Wednesday the board is “grateful” that council sees the need for schools in both the northeast and west of the city, and for the “unprecedented opportunity” Alberta’s $8.6 billion School Construction Accelerator program presents. The trick is to connect the two.
“To achieve this, site readiness is essential,” Rouse wrote. “School boards and municipalities must work together to ensure priority sites are permitted, serviced, and ready for construction.”
The school board is unsatisfied with the prospect of waiting until 2027. They are all about striking while the provincial iron is hot.
“None of us had a crystal ball that this was going to be here three months ago, and this could be gone in six months,” Rouse said. “They could say, ‘We have all the applications that we (need).'”
Beaumont, brought up by Coun. Mike Killick, is an example that may support her point. Killick asked why the community south of Edmonton was able to announce a new school within weeks of learning of the accelerator, which pledges to build dozens of new schools in each of the next three budget years.
Mayor Cathy Heron and others in the room helped clarify that the announcement, posted to the city’s website, claimed only that the chosen site for the school had been acquired and was “shovel-ready,” as is required to qualify for funding.
That lot is in an already-serviced neighbourhood, further answering Killick’s question.
Beaumont councillors approved the purchase of 13.76 acres of land with existing road and utility access in the southeast neighbourhood of Azur/Lakeview.
“The new location is available immediately for construction upon approval of funding from the Alberta government,” saving the municipality half the estimated $12 million it would have cost to place the school in another unserviced site to the west of the built-up portion of the city, which was Plan A.
“An unexpected opportunity in the Azur/Lakeview neighbourhood came up this year and we recognized this as the prudent choice,” Mayor Bill Daneluik said. “This is a huge win for Beaumont’s families, school boards, and taxpayers.”
