Rocky View Schools (RVS) trustees are calling the more than 100 per cent utilization at Herons Crossing School in Airdrie and East Lake School in Chestermere “a crisis” and on Oct. 2 the board of trustees approved the submission of an emergent capital request to the Government of Alberta.
Trustee Bev LePeare, who made the motion to approve submitting the request, said the title of the submission should be “crisis request” to more accurately represent the situation RVS finds itself in with the rapid student population growth in the division.
“This is just the beginning,” LePeare said. “This part will help us house these students for a short time and then we will have to build more schools.”
The request is asking for about $25 million to relocate two modular classrooms from Nose Creek Elementary School to Herons Crossing School, build an addition to Herons Crossing, and to attach 16 new modular classrooms to Chestermere’s East Lake School.
Herons Crossing, which opened in 2012, is currently operating at 117 per cent utilization and will rise to 145.5 per cent utilization by September 2015 if something is not done now, according to RVS.
Associate Superintendent of Business and Operations Darrell Couture said the 3,600 to 4,200 square metre addition to Herons Crossing was always planned as the school was built as a starter school with a core building and modular classrooms.
“It’s now time to complete the core,” he told the Board, adding the addition would increase the current capacity at the school from 150 students to 500 students. “It would also add a gym, learning commons, etc. It would be a significant addition.”
Couture said moving the portables from Nose Creek will put utilization at that school at about 77 per cent, “which still leaves a lot of space.”
He said RVS as a division is operating at about 85 per cent utilization even with the opening of three new schools this September. He added this rate of utilization is “above average” for the province.
According to Sept. 8 enrollment numbers, RVS has an additional 1,100 students this year. Final enrollment numbers will not be available until the next RVS board of trustees meeting on Oct. 16.
“We are almost double the Calgary growth,” Couture said.
On Sept. 22 the provincial government announced it will invest $30.6 million in Calgary school infrastructure to build four Calgary Board of Education starter schools.
Following this announcement, the government request RVS identify similar capital needs.
“Because it is an emergent request we are hoping for a fairly rapid response,” Superintendent of Schools Don Hoium told the Board, adding he didn’t know the timeframe for when RVS can expect a response from the government.
Couture said, if approved the portables should be in place by January 2015 and the addition should be ready for students by September 2017.
