Edmonton's public school board calls on province to step up funding for new schools

As a new school year begins, Edmonton's public school board is renewing calls for the province to step up funding to get shovels into the ground and build schools.

The board discussed how to handle growing student enrolment during the first board meeting for the 2022-23 school year. 

"It's blowing our projections out of the water, to put it simply," board chair Trisha Estabrooks said in an interview with CBC's Edmonton AM on Thursday. 

The board had initially projected 107,000 students in the district but had close to 110,000 students enrolled once the school year began. It had 105,000 students in the previous school year.

"That kind of growth, even in a city like ours that's growing so quickly ... is still really unprecedented," Estabrooks said. 

She said it contributes to what she calls an already existing "critical space crunch."

LISTEN | Edmonton Public School Board chair talks to CBC's Edmonton AM about the struggle to build schools to meet growing enrolment:

During its meeting on Tuesday, the board reviewed and amended recommendations to its three-year capital plan for 2023-26.

Brought to the forefront was the lack of schools in neighbourhoods like Edgemont, Glenridding Heights and Rosenthal.

The board bumped up Edgemont as a priority after a parcel of land became available for development. The owner decided to sell.

Construction would involve the building of a kindergarten to Grade 9 school in the neighbourhood. 

Provincial support 

Discussions have been ongoing between the school board and Education Minister Adriana LaGrange. 

Estabrooks said the division has been shut out of new school announcements for the last two years.

"We're really playing catch up and that's the message we shared with Minister of Education LaGrange earlier this week," she said. 

"We are in a critical situation ... we needed these new schools built yesterday."

Katherine Stavropoulos, press secretary for LaGrange, said in an emailed statement Wednesday the department has received EPSB's priority list for the 2023-26 capital plan.

"It is being assessed alongside other school authority priority lists," Stavropoulos said. "This work will inform Budget 2023 Capital Plan recommendations."

The statement also notes that needs are prioritized based on evaluation criteria, including health and safety, enrolment pressures, building conditions, functionality, programming and legal requirements. 

The province's 2022 capital plan includes an investment of $2 billion over three years for the construction of new schools, modernizations and design work to support school priorities.

With a new school opening possibly still years away, the wait is tough for some parents like Millicent Asiedu.

It takes her six-year-old son, Ezra, half an hour to ride the school bus to school. 

"It seems like with Edgemont, things are a lot more slower than we had imagined," Asiedu said. "It's just really sad and it just tells us that our kids don't matter at this time."

She said other newer neighbourhoods developed around the same time have access to more recreational and educational amenities.

The situation is taking an emotional toll on her son, Asiedu said.

"It's quite isolating for him because he has to make friends with kids who aren't in his neighbourhood," she said.

"But had he [gone to school] in this neighbourhood that would really help him build that community and form friendships with people that he will see often."