Calgary's National Sport School stays at Winsport for another year, says CBE
Student athletes were told last year that the school might have to close or move
The National Sport School (NSS) will now stay put at WinSport in Canada Olympic Park for the upcoming year, but any plans to close or move it will be revisited in the coming months, says the Calgary Board of Education.
Last year, student athletes and their parents were told the school faced an uncertain future due to the provincial government funding freeze on education and other factors.
Since then, the CBE has been meeting with parents and students to try to come up with a plan since the lease at WinSport was set to expire this June.
Originally, two alternatives were debated: either blending all students and some staff into another high school or abandoning the sport-school concept altogether and having athletes return to high schools in their communities.
On Friday, the CBE issued a statement that the school will continue to operate out of WinSport for another year, but the issue will be revisited in the coming months.
"Programming for the next year will be adjusted based on the CBE's fiscal reality and will reflect funding for a high school of a similar size," said the CBE.
The CBE allocates $1.8 million annually to the school. However, "the cost of maintaining this program as it exists is no longer affordable," according to a document posted on the school's website in January.
Moving the program would save approximately $1 million a year, said the board.
In response to the announcement, Winsport told CBC News it plans to work with the board to secure the longer-term future of the sport school at WinSport.
Students react
Victoria Redman, a Grade 12 student at the school who competes as an equestrian, says students found out about the news from teachers Friday morning.
"It was phenomenal. Everybody was super, super excited," she said. "I've never seen the school light up so much since the bad news of the potential closing."
Redman says her sport can take her away for months at a time — which wouldn't be possible at a regular school.
"If I was not going here, I would not be graduating at all," she said.
"So it's really, really good for all the other students as well who don't have to sacrifice their sport over their education."
Hailey Murphy, a tennis player in Grade 10, says she was relieved to hear the news because other schools have said they don't have the ability to work around her sport schedule.
"The teachers and the environment here, they're so willing to work with you and around your schedule, and they're accepting that you will be away," she said.
"My other schools, they got mad when I was away."
Murphy says if the school stays open next year, she will "definitely" be staying.
National Sport School history
The Calgary Olympic Development Association — now WinSport — and the Calgary Board of Education jointly established the school in 1994 to help athletes pursue sport at a world level and graduate from high school. It has been operating out of Calgary Olympic Park since 2011.
Two dozen alumni competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics and some of the former students include Olympic champions Kyle Shewfelt (gymnastics), Jennifer Botterill, Carla MacLeod and Jocelyne Larocque (hockey), Kaillie Humphries (bobsled), Brady Leman (ski cross) and six-time Paralympic swim champion Jessica Sloan.
The majority of the 200 students in Grades 9-12 are winter-sport athletes and have access to WinSport's hockey rinks, ski slope, halfpipe, terrain park and a gymnastics club, as well as dryland training facilities and sport-science services.
They also had use of the bobsleigh and luge sliding track before it closed last year awaiting a renovation.
Teachers and administration also provided an environment in which students can access and complete the necessary coursework to graduate.
"At the sport school, it gave me the flexibility to bridge the gap from the club level to the provincial level in skiing," said Leman, a 2004 graduate.
"We were training and travelling and missing upwards of a hundred days of school. A huge part of it was just the willingness of the teachers to be flexible and work with us.
"I can't imagine saying to a normal teacher, 'I'll be back in three weeks. Can I have my homework?' And them saying, 'sure, no problem' or 'I'll give you half of the work and you can stay late when you get back to catch up."'
With files from Colleen Underwood and The Canadian Press