The devil is in the detail, and that's what Rocky View Schools (RVS) is awaiting on the government's new school construction accelerator program.
"Mid-year announcements, the flexibility to accelerate timelines for urgent projects when they are ready to move forward, additional modulars and increased funding to help maintain our existing, over-utilized schools and aging facilities provides us with hope future relief is on the way," says RVS board chair Fiona Gilbert in a written statement. "RVS eagerly awaits further certainty from the government on our projects to help guide RVS in making informed decisions to address growing enrolment and support all students across the division."
In an interview yesterday, Gilbert says enrolment growth is challenge in many urban school divisions but it's nothing new for Rocky View.
"We've continued to try to message the government that this enrolment growth for Rocky View isn't new. It's not just something that's happened in the last couple of years; it's been happening for many, many years, and so we definitely appreciate the government recognition that they need to build more schools, and they need to build them as quickly as possible because we are overcapacity."
Gilbert says even with this increased investment there isn't enough funding for every single request from school boards.
"So there still needs to be some prioritization of projects and we're just not quite sure how that process is going to work," she says.
Removing barriers to get projects approved will remain a priority.
"There's always more that can be done, whether that's barriers that are in the municipal government process about getting school sites ready, whether that's barriers of constructing of modulars... all those kinds of things. It definitely sounds like it's a priority of government to get these moving as quickly as possible, and we're ready to help as much as we can to make sure that those school sites are ready do we can get schools built as quickly as we can in Rocky View Schools."
Currently, an Airdrie high school is the division's top priority, followed by a K to 9 in Chestermere. A K to 8 school in the Heartland community is fifth on the list followed by a new high school at the Horse Creek site.
The Heartland site is shovel ready but has not been approved for government funding. In 2023, the division received pre-planning approval for a K-5/K-8 school from Alberta Education.
Some relief is coming, though. The expansion of the Bow Valley High School is underway and on Mar. 1, full funding was announced for a new K to 8 students in the Rivercrest community.
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Once a project is announced, it can take as much as four years before students walk through the doors. The Rivercrest School, for example, isn't expected to open until 2028, and the Bow Valley High expansion is slated for completion in 2026.
In the interim, modulars are essential. As part of the accelerate program, the province has committed to delivering 20,000 new student spaces through modular classrooms over the next four years.
In July, it was announced the division would receive an additional 12 new modular classrooms and funding to relocate up to 12 existing ones. Gilbert says those modulars are currently being manufactured and the Sept. 19 board of trustees meeting includes a discussion on where best to place them.
She says even more modulars will be required until new schools open.
RVS estimates total enrolment will be 29,350 by Sept. 30, up 2.6 per cent from last school year.