Lethbridge School Division excited about provincial school announcement

By Lethbridge Herald on September 18, 2024.

Lethbridge School Division’s Christine Lee speaks to reporters about the provincial government’s announcement of increasing K-12 capital budget for new school spaces, on Wednesday at the West Coulee Station Elementary School construction site. Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lethbridge School Division responded to the provincial government’s announcement of increasing K-12 capital budget for new school spaces as well as modernizations through the school construction accelerator program during a media availability Wednesday afternoon.

Premier Danielle Smith announced Wednesday morning that the new program will allow the provincial government to complete construction on about 50,000 new student spaces over the next three years and complete more than 150,000 new spaces in the four years after that.

“This is the fastest and largest build our province can manage given the capacity of our construction workforce and the time. That it takes to permit and prepare and service available school sites,” said Smith.

She added that as the government ramps up to full construction capacity, they are funding the purchase of new specialized modular classrooms to provide more than 420,000 new student spaces over the next four years.

Christine Lee, associate superintendent of business and operations with the Lethbridge School Division, said the division was excited to hear the announcement.

“What that means for us, we are not sure yet, but we do have some capital priorities that we put forward in our capital plan and our number one priority is the modernization of Galbraith Elementary School in North Lethbridge, which is currently in design funding,” said Lee.

She said that based on the premier’s announcement when design is ready the province will fast- track the approval of construction on that, but the school division is awaiting confirmation.

“We also have an increased need for new schools in West Lethbridge. West Lethbridge is the fastest growing area of the city of Lethbridge, so we need a new high school, as well as a new elementary in the South end of West Lethbridge,” said Lee.

She said the school that is currently under construction in West Lethbridge, the West Coulee Station Elementary School, will provide much needed relief for Mike Mountain Horse Elementary School, but another elementary school is still needed to relieve the pressure on Dr. Probe Elementary School and Coalbanks Elementary School.

“Currently our schools have several modular classrooms in order to alleviate classroom space, but those schools have pressure in their core spaces such as their gymnasiums, their learning commons and their hallways, so we need to relief those pressures by adding a new elementary school,” said Lee.

She said they are expecting West Lethbridge to continue to grow at a very fast pace and therefore a new elementary school will be welcome if announced at some point by the government.

In terms of the need for a high school in West Lethbridge, Lee said currently Chinook High School is the only school of its kind in west Lethbridge and this is causing them to bus 400 students per day to Lethbridge Collegiate Institute so they can keep Chinook High School at a reasonable size.

“With the growth that we’re anticipating in west Lethbridge in the coming years, we will need another high school here,” said Lee.

She said they are looking at approximately extra 300 to 400 elementary school students in the next seven years, and by 2030-2040 the division is expecting to have another 700 high school students in west Lethbridge.

“We have put in our capital plan a request for the two school constructions in west Lethbridge and we are hoping in budget 2025 that will receive planning funds for those two projects,” said Lee.

She said one of the biggest requirements needed to accomplish before they go any further is to find a site and start the process to develop that site so it is ready to take on construction.

“So one of the first things we will be doing is we will be working with the City of Lethbridge to to talk about what sites we could possibly have for our new schools in west Lethbridge and begin those discussions and hopefully we receive funding,” said Lee.

In terms of the option to fund modular classrooms that was also announced by the premier on Tuesday, Lee said they will be requesting a few modulars for Chinook High School to alleviate the pressure on the classroom area.

“We will also be looking at some modulars for our middle school in south Lethbridge, Gilbert Paterson Middle School, that started to see some growth and then also possibly for Winston Churchill High school,” said Lee.

She said those modular classrooms are really helpful for schools as they continue to grow in the next couple of years.

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