Edmonton board chairs happy with schools announcement

The leaders of Edmonton’s two school boards are happy that the city has been promised 15 new schools and updates to three existing schools by Alberta Premier Jim Prentice.

In Edmonton, the public school board is getting nine of the new schools. The Catholic board is getting four schools and a major expansion.  A new charter school was also announced by Prentice.

• Jim Prentice announces $2B investment in Alberta's schools

Sarah Hoffman, chairwoman of Edmonton Public Schools, said she was pleased by the announcement.

“We needed them open yesterday, but they're in our capital plan right now and we're glad that they're being announced right now,” she said.

“We're going be able to move forward and meet the needs of today. In terms of meeting the needs of tomorrow, like I said, I hope this is the new pace that's being set.”

Cindy Olsen chairs the Edmonton Catholic School Board. She hopes the new schools could help ease the pressures of the city’s population growth.

“We're finding in some of the areas where we had new schools because the growth in this city is so extreme --  there's so many new families moving in -- that sometimes our schools are at capacity when they're opened,” she said.

But opposition parties are cynical about the timing of the school announcement.

NDP MLA Deron Bilous says he believes the Progressive Conservatives are using it to win the four seats up for grabs in the Oct. 27 byelection.

“The premier and the minister of education do not have seats and so it's a convenient time to announce a whole bunch of new schools when they're trying really to curry votes,” he said.

The Wildrose Party is planning to ask the province’s ethics commissioner to rule on whether the schools announcement was against the rules.

New schools announced for Edmonton:

• Aurora Charter School
• Catholic: kindergarten to grade 9 in Heritage Valley
• Catholic: kindergarten to grade 9 school in Pilot Sound
• Catholic: collegiate school for technology and trades
• Catholic: elementary/junior high school in Ellerslie
• Public: kindergarten to grade 6 in Windermere
• Public: kindergarten to grade 9 in The Grange
• Public: kindergarten to grade 9 in Heritage Valley
• Public: kindergarten to grade 9 in Ellerslie
• Public: kindergarten to grade 6 in Meadows
• Public: kindergarten to grade 9 in southeast
• Public: kindergarten to grade 9 in Lewis Farms
• Public: school in Palisades
• Public: collegiate school for science/technology and trades
• Catholic: adding senior high school to Holy Trinity (expansion of the K to 9 school)

Modernizations:

• Catholic: St. Edmund Catholic elementary/junior high school
• Public: Mill Creek School
• Public: Caernarvon School