Rocky View Schools’s (RVS) new Board of Trustees chair Norma Lang says letters of support provided by local MLAs advocating for new schools in the division will hopefully be followed up with further advocacy efforts to the provincial cabinet ahead of its next capital budget discussions.
Lang, who represents north Rocky View County’s schools on the RVS board, confirmed both Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt and Energy Minister Peter Guthrie of Airdrie-Cochrane have both penned letters to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange to emphasize the critical need for new schools in the division.
“I feel they are very supportive, and understand the need for (new) schools in their areas,” Lang recently told the Airdrie City View. “[The ball] is really in their court now to advocate in their party, and in the government, for investment in schools across the province – but especially in their division – in their next budget cycle.”
Lang hoped that with the combined efforts of both MLAs and the RVS Board of Trustees that the timing is right to get new schools on the province’s radar in a big way.
“This is really what this is all about,” Lang stated. “We have tried to hit them at the right time before budgets are completely determined, and make sure these schools hit the capital planning cycle. And (with) announcements, hopefully, in the new year.”
It’s not only new schools that are required in the next few years, argued Lang, but also new modular classrooms in the more immediate future. RVS’ trustees recently sent a letter requesting 32 new modulars to the Alberta government, after receiving none the year before.
“I would ask the Minister LaGrange to please continue to continue to advocate on our behalf with her colleagues in government for capital investment in new schools, and also for the modular program,” Lang said. “So we can get the 32 modulars we asked for and desperately need for next year.”
The RVS Board of Trustees has been loud and vocal in recent months over the critical need for new schools and more modular classrooms in the area, particularly in its more urban regions of Airdrie, Cochrane and Chestermere.
Schools with the most acute need of new modulars, according to a report tabled at the Nov. 3 board meeting, include Chestermere Lake Middle School, which is currently at 110 per cent capacity and is projected to rise to 118 per cent capacity by 2024 if four new modular units aren’t provided. W.H. Croxford High School in Airdrie is currently at 109 per cent capacity and is projected to rise to 133 per cent capacity by 2024 if 10 new modulars aren’t provided. And Northcott Prairie School in Airdrie which is currently at 103 per cent capacity and is projected to rise to 119 per cent capacity by 2024 if two new modulars aren’t provided.
George McDougall High School in Airdrie and Chestermere High School, meanwhile, would need four new modular units each.
But, to the RVS board, the modulars are a stop-gap measure at best. The real hope is for new schools to be built. RVS has been experiencing growth at a pace of over 1,000 new students a year for several years now, and thus far, the province hasn’t agreed to fund any new schools in the division since the announcement of funding earmarked for a new junior-senior high school in Langdon back in 2020.
