Francophone school board picks site for new Whitehorse high school

Yukon's francophone school board has settled on a preferred site for a new high school — right near the new F.H. Collins school, in Riverdale.

The territory gave the school board three options, all of them on land that is an educational reserve in Riverdale. The selected lot is where the local skate park is.

School board president Ludovic Gouaillier says picking the spot is just an initial step. He says the board still has a lot of work to do with the government. 

"We're still working, very preliminary stages of being able to agree," says Gouaillier. "The next steps will be money set aside for planning studies and so on."

Yukon's education minister Doug Graham has said he wants to work with the francophone board, and come to an agreement over a new school as quickly as possible. That's despite the government and the board being at odds in a case being considered by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Gouaillier says it's too soon to talk of a timeline for the project. But he says the high school is needed now.

"We understand that it's probably going to be a bit longer than that," he says. 

As for the skate park, Gouaillier says the government has indicated it will build a new one in a different location.