An upcoming public hearing about a potential new high school in St. Albert's northeast has some residents frustrated with city administration's opposition to the school's proposed location.
St. Albert city council will host a public hearing during its Sept. 2 meeting — originally scheduled for July 15 — about rezoning a parcel of land in the city's northeast to facilitate a school site. But city administration has presented a report detailing reasons it will recommend the rezoning be defeated. These include the costs to service the lands, the cost to purchase an over dedication of municipal reserve, and a lack of servicing capacity.
Some Erin Ridge North residents spoke to the Gazette about what it would mean to see a high school site approved for the area.
Kari McKnight has lived in St. Albert for around 25 years, with 10 of those spent in the Erin Ridge North neighbourhood. She said she welcomes the chance to have a discussion about a high school site in the area.
"We're just asking for equal opportunity," McKnight said. She said although her kids will likely be too old to benefit from a high school by the time it's built and ready, she'd still like to see it in the community.
"I want the kids that are currently in Lois E. Hole to have a chance for this," she said. "To not have to face the 45-minute bus ride that my kids do."
Her children currently go to École Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d'Youville (ESSMY) for French immersion. She said their public option would have been to go to Hillgrove School, but because of the size of Hillgrove and the commute, they decided to put the kids into the Catholic school system.
She said they'll probably go back into the public system for high school, and will likely go to Paul Kane. She estimated they will have an approximately half-hour commute to school on busy days.
"As my kids get older, I still feel like I'm going to see lots of families, because we live literally steps from Lois E. Hole," she said. "I want to see lots of those families and I want to see them have a different opportunity than what's available to my kids. It is important to this community and it would be something that council could do to show that they actually understand our frustrations."
Another Erin Ridge resident, Krystal Brass, echoed some of McKnight's sentiments.
"Just with the locations of other high schools, this area is really under-serviced in that area, and we have lots of students and lots of schools that are over capacity," Brass said.
Teresa Earl, who has lived in the northeast since 2020, agreed.
"When I look at where the other two high schools are in St. Albert, they are so far away," Earl said. "It just makes it seem like it's a huge disadvantage for us in our lives to be in the northeast."
She said the idea the potential high school site could "be taken away" was highly disappointing.
With the public hearing postponed until September at the request of development company Landrex, McKnight said in an email the postponement was "a good thing."
"Admin's report was pretty slanted in the direction they want the decision to go," she said. "I am planning to do some canvassing and social media posts over the summer to see if we can get more families engaged and have more added to the additional public input in September."
Earl said she hopes the postponement means administration is "trying to gather more information, instead of moving forward in a direction that isn't going to be the best decision for residents."
