With the rapid population increase that has been seen in Chestermere and surrounding area, it is no surprise that the demand for more services and amenities becomes increasingly noticed as well. This is very much the case with Chestermere and area schools as when new schools are built in our area, they are typically full or very close to full before they even open their doors. But that pressure may be easing up when it comes to our schools.
Rocky View School (RVS) Trustee Bev LaPeare shared some very exciting news that should make both teachers and parents heave a sigh of relief. RVS had their Capital Plan debate on Thursday March 17th and there are new schools for the areas of Chestermere and Langdon being requested for each of the 3 years. “School Authorities are required to submit a 3-year capital plan to Alberta Education by April 1, 2016. How it works is all Boards in Alberta submit their requests by that date and the province first determines what’s needed for health and safety reasons and those are allocated first. After that they look at utilization, programing needs and modernizations. We are still waiting to hear about approvals from last year’s Plan and we expect to hear something after the provincial budget announcement in April”, explained LaPeare.
On the first year of the Capital Plan, LaPeare is asking for a new K-9 school in Chestermere to deal with the growing population there. “East Lake School is quickly filling up and this new school would decant students from Prairie Waters, Rainbow Creek and Chestermere Lake Middle School”, added LaPeare.
In year one it is also being asked for a replacement school for Indus School. “It was constructed in 1951 and is in need of modernization, appropriate program spaces and upgraded mechanical systems that would all end up exceeding 75% of the replacement cost. This would fall under the Government’s Small School by Necessity request”, explained LaPeare.
In the second year of the Capital Plan they are requesting the build of the new Langdon High School. LaPeare explained saying, “We (RVS) purchased a 45 acre section of land many years ago jointly with the county and we’ve been working together to plan the site in order to have a high school and a recreation center built on the land. The county is responsible for the recreation component but there are lots of synergies to be had by jointly having it on the same piece of land.”
What could be considered the biggest request in this Capital Plan is a new high school. “We are going to be asking the province for a new High School in Chestermere as a replacement school for the current Chestermere High School. The entire Chestermere High School needs to be modernized to more appropriately meet the needs of student and mechanical systems need huge upgrades. The cost of this is greater than 75% of the cost of a replacement school. The two new high schools won’t be built until there’s sufficient student numbers to ensure adequate programing in both schools. The way Langdon and Chestermere are growing though, it sure won’t take long! We are also asking for another K-5 school in Langdon in year two of the Capital Plan”, said LaPeare.
The final year of the three year plan will show the request for another K-9 school in Chestermere as the growth there is expected to continue and we’ll need another school by then to again try to accommodate students according to Trustee LaPeare.
“I’m over the moon excited!!! One more thing in relation to the Chestermere High School Replacement is that part of my debate to get it on the plan was about student safety. Getting the school off of the 791 will eliminate the need for our young drivers as well as staff and parents to be navigating that turn onto the number 1 highway”.
