Bruce McAllister, Wildrose MLA for Chestermere-Rocky View, is uncertain the provincial government will be able to deliver on 50 new schools it promised to build.
McAllister spent a week at the end of January meeting with education stakeholders in southern Alberta and found that many people aren’t certain the government can make good on their promises.
“(RVS) is one of the fastest growing regions in the province, if not the fastest, so our need for new schools is as great as anywhere in Alberta. People are unsure whether their schools are going to be approved on the province’s capital plan,” said McAllister, the Wildrose Party’s education critic. “(The Government of Alberta) promised to build 50 schools and renovate 70 schools this term, I’m skeptical as to whether they’re going to honour that promise.”
Calling those promises “bait-and-switch politician tactics,” McAllister says the government should have criteria in place for when and where to build schools.
“We’ve continually asked … what is the criteria you’re using? Take the politics out of building schools. Communities deserve to know, boards, parents deserve to know, are they on a list? Is the government considering them? Will it be approved next year?
“Look at the population of students in a region, look at the number of kids, look at the facilities, the capacity it has, the percentage it’s at,” he added. “And make your decisions based on that criteria that everyone can see.
“That’s not to say that there won’t be exceptions to the rule – that there will be a community that has had a problem with a school and suddenly needs to be moved up the list because kids are wearing jackets in gymnasiums or there’s been a sudden population swell, but you can present that case to the public and say, ‘Here’s why this school has moved up.’ That’s what people find so frustrating is there is no criteria, there is no public process, so people know where they stand.”
However, Alberta Minister of Education Jeff Johnson says there are criteria in place for school infrastructure projects, starting with health and safety concerns.
“So if you have a building we found mould in, or a storm comes through and has blown a roof off, or if we have a situation like in Slave Lake where the fire came through the town, those kind of situations where you’ve got a building that absolutely either has to be replaced or has to be fixed for health and safety reasons,” said Johnson, adding that enrolment pressures also play a role in determining what is built.
“A lot of buildings around the province are old and we would love to replace, update or modernize (them), but they might be in areas where there’s declining enrollment. Then we have communities like Airdrie where we have some incredible pressures, there’s more families moving to the area, more young kids, the demographics is putting pressures on the school in certain particular areas and Airdrie is a great example, so is southeast Calgary, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, places like that.”
And Johnson mentioned that the possibility for local partnership also plays a role in their criteria.
“If there’s an opportunity for a school to be built and co-locate with a library, for example, or a field house for the municipality or even a family care clinic or post-secondary institution, we love those … because they’re great use of the infrastructure. It means the taxpayers’ dollars are going further and we get better programs and services for the community because the building gets used during the morning and all day, in the evening and on weekends,” he said.
That said, Johnson admitted that the fiscal picture of the province has changed greatly in the last few months, meaning some projects might not be delivered in the timeline originally thought.
“Obviously it was our intent to deliver on the promises we have made and we’re still working towards that,” said Johnson.
“The budget is not finalized yet so I can’t say yet what schools will be delivered in what timeline, but it’s still our goal to fulfill those commitments that we made because that infrastructure is really important.”
According to the Rocky View School Division 2013-2016 Capital Plan, the provincial government approved a new Airdrie middle school in northwest Airdrie for a capacity of 900 students, a new high school in Airdrie for a capacity of 1,000 students (to be built out to 1,200 students) and a new kindergarten to Grade 8 school in east Chestermere for a capacity of 500 students (to be built out to 900 students).
All of those projects were approved to open in 2014.
Greg Bass, RVS superintendent of schools, said that those projects would meet RVS accommodation needs through only 2015. Without the approval of seven new schools (total capacity of 3,250), RVS would exceed 108 per cent utilization in 2018 – it currently sits at 86.8 per cent.
“RVS would need to build contingency accommodation plans if our capital requests are not supported, as we don't have excess space anywhere on our system,” he explained.
“A combination of no excess space and rapid growth puts RVS in a unique provincial position.”
The RVS website states that the division expects an additional 5,300 students will be accepted during the time period starting September 2011 and ending September 2017.
“Rocky View Schools is struggling to provide adequate educational facilities in several communities in the division,” is written on the RVS website, projecting a majority of that growth in Airdrie, Chestermere, Cochrane and Langdon
