School division disappointed in lack of provincial capital projects for region

Rocky View Schools (RVS) is disappointed that no funding for new schools in the division is coming from the provincial government.
The province announced its list of new school projects in the province on March 23 with badly needed schools in Rocky View noticeable by their absence from the list.
“The reality is that our growth is rapidly outpacing the construction of new space,” said Board Chair Todd Brand in a press release March 27.
“The decision not to allocate any new schools to our division is difficult to understand,” he said.
The Rocky View School division is one of the fastest growing divisions in the province.
“With an annual enrolment growth of 1000 students, our school division needs two new schools opening each and every year to ensure we have the space for students to learn,” said Brand.
If the current growth continues as projected, Brand said that schools in both the City of Chestermere and the Hamlet of Langdon will reach 100 per cent capacity by the year 2020.
The biggest disappointment from the provincial announcement was the lack of a badly needed school in Langdon.
The new school, had it been approved, would have taken some of the pressure off of schools in Chestermere, which are projected to reach 107 per cent capacity in 2020.
Brand said that an additional concern for the board is the lack of provincial funding for design.
Design funding would allow RVS to begin the process of designing new schools for the division, greatly speeding up those projects when capital funding becomes available from the province.
“Without school construction approved for RVS in Alberta’s 2018/19 Capital Budget, we are faced with an even higher facility utilization and space shortage in the coming years,” said Brand.
Brand said that the RVS board will continue their work advocating for more schools and support for students from the provincial government.
“While we applaud the many positive initiatives the province has made for students and families, we cannot solve our growing classroom space crisis without the government’s support,” he said.
Brand said that he remains hopeful approval for capital projects in the Rocky View School division will be forthcoming from the Government of Alberta in the next few months.