Work is still underway to pick a site for St. Albert Public's new K-9 school following last month's vote, where city council decided not to redesignate land in the Chérot neighbourhood.
During its May 20 regular meeting, St. Albert city council unanimously voted against redesignating a 25-acre school site — located on the Chérot neighbourhood's community amenities site — by replacing the words "high school" with "school."
Now, the St. Albert Public School Board is working to determine where to put the school, which has already been approved by the province as part of its School Construction Accelerator Program.
Board chair John Allen said there are two sites under consideration: a 10-acre package in South Chérot and a location in East Riverside. Allen said the province is already working through a site-readiness checklist provided by the city for the South Chérot site, but the board has also asked the city to prepare a checklist for the location in East Riverside.
"In case our site allocation committee, which includes us and our sister boards, does not want us to build on one of those sites they can contest it," Allen said. "Also, one or the other of those sites might not be considered suitable by the province, so we want to have a fall-back."
Allen said he didn't have a timeline for when the new site might be selected or approved.
"It's in the black bag of government approval process," he said. "But they mean it when they say they're accelerating this process. So, the fact that it's the summer and a lot of staff in a lot of places is reduced during the summer might be a factor, but it's in their hands."
Allen couldn't say how long construction would be delayed. He said the board originally hoped to have clarification on the community amenities site in March, but had to wait until late May for it to appear before council.
He added the wait for the Government of Alberta to approve the site-readiness checklist, as well as the approval of other processes by the city, could mean up to a six-month delay from it being ready to receive students, although he couldn't say for certain.
In an emailed statement, infrastructure press secretary Michael Kwas said the Government of Alberta is working with the school board and the city to determine the site readiness.
"Alberta Infrastructure will conduct site investigation work by the end of 2025, which will inform the decision on site selection," Kwas said.
Allen was careful not to overstate what the delay would mean for St. Albert Public's student population.
"I don't think it would mean that students are going to be sitting on each other's laps because of a six-month delay," he said. "But it does affect a lot of things in the growth plan."
For example, he said if the school division wanted to open a special program in the Chérot school, it might choose to start the program at a different school to avoid introducing it halfway through the year.
He also added population pressure in their schools keeps building, with the division set to pass 10,000 students in the upcoming year.
"At 300 students plus per year at this rate, half a year delay means that there will be 150 more students around the division by the time that the school does get open," Allen said. "So it's a factor. It is an inconvenience and a delay that I wish hadn't happened. But we'll make it work."
