Latest news with #SchoolConstructionAcceleratorProgram
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alberta government commits to fast-tracking delivery of new school projects
The province has pledged funding to fast-track the delivery of 11 school projects across Alberta. Previously announced projects in 10 communities will move forward to either design or construction, depending on how far along they are. Two school projects in Calgary are receiving funding. A new high school in west Calgary will move ahead to construction, while the Bishop McNally High School modernization and addition project will move to the design stage. Funding will also go to modernizing or building new schools in Coalhurst, Donnelly, Falher, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie County, Lac La Biche, Red Deer, Strathmore and Wetaskiwin, according to Wednesday's announcement. Together, the 11 school projects are expected to create 8,000 new and updated student spaces. Funding for the new schools is coming through Alberta's School Construction Accelerator Program — an $8.6-billion plan to add 200,000 student spaces by the fall of 2031. "We are building more schools at a faster rate never before seen in Alberta," said Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides in a news release. "Through this innovative approach to building more schools now, backed by our generational investment of $8.6 billion to build more than 100 schools across the province, we will ensure every student in Alberta has the space to engage in the province's world-class education system." The province also announced on Wednesday that it was investing $50 million to provide modular classrooms to 19 school boards. That money will go toward building 50 modular classrooms and relocating 19 others to provide space for 1,650 students. Some of those modular classrooms will be installed before the new school year begins in the fall. Others will be ready for use by the 2025-26 school year. The Alberta government said in March that student enrolment in Alberta has grown by about 89,000 since 2020. Enrolment in the Golden Hills School District, which has schools in Drumheller, Strathmore and other communities north and east of Calgary, grew from 8,655 during the 2020-21 school year to 12,455 during the 2023-24 school year, according to its annual education results reports. Funding for one school project in the district was included in Wednesday's announcement. "Golden Hills School Division extends its appreciation to the Government of Alberta for the approval of a new school to replace Westmount School in Strathmore," said division board chair Laurie Huntley. "This new school will further support our vision of creating dynamic spaces that inspire curiosity, creativity and a strong sense of community." Up to 90 new schools will be built and up to 24 will be renovated or replaced through the School Construction Accelerator Program. Since the program was announced last fall, the province has committed funding for 33 school projects.
Calgary Herald
21-05-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Construction to be fast-tracked for west Calgary Catholic high school project
A long-awaited Catholic high school in west Calgary is one step closer to being built. Article content Article content Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced the third funding stream for the province's School Construction Accelerator Program (SCAP) in Aspen Woods on Wednesday, including two projects that will benefit the Calgary Catholic School District. Article content The projects receiving funding through the latest round of SCAP include construction of a new Catholic high school in west Calgary, and design-related work for the modernization and expansion of Bishop McNally High School in Falconridge. Article content Article content 'There has been a lot of commentary from parents in west Calgary about the need for a new high school,' Nicolaides told Postmedia ahead of his announcement. 'This project has now moved through the design phase and is ready to begin construction, so we'll be able to provide construction funding to the school division so the project can start to move ahead right away.' Article content Article content Parent advocates have long called on the provincial government to fund a Catholic high school in west Calgary. Currently, Catholic high school students in the southwest attend St. Mary's High School in the Beltline, which can involve nearly an hour's commute each way. Article content 'It's a long commute time, and I do know for a lot of families in the neighbourhood, they'd obviously prefer to have their kids attend school closer to home,' Nicolaides said. 'A lot of them switch and enrol into the public system, (with) Ernest Manning as their designated high school, which cascades and creates other capacity issues.' Article content Article content The new grades 10-12 school will be built at 1579 93rd Street S.W., on the western edge of the city limits, and is expected to open in 2028, states the CCSD's website, which doesn't specify when construction will begin. Article content Article content On the opposite corner of the city, the Bishop McNally modernization project will expand the campus to handle a capacity of 1,880 students, according to the province's major projects portal. Article content 'It is a top project for the school division and we're now able to move it to the design phase, which is a really important stage,' Nicolaides said. 'The school division can really start mapping out what that addition is going to look like and how the space is going to be modernized.' Article content Shannon Cook, chair of the CCSD's board of trustees, said the division is grateful to see two of its highest-priority high-school projects receive funding through SCAP. Article content 'With our student population growing rapidly and our high schools already over capacity, these new builds and modernizations/additions are critical to ensuring our students have access to quality, Catholic education close to home,' she said in a statement. Article content Article content SCAP is an $8.6-billion program that aims to address Alberta's growing student enrolment pressures in the K-to-12 education system, brought on by the province's recent surge in population. Article content As evidence of a worsening space crunch, more than one-third of public schools in Calgary are now operating at or above a 100 per cent utilization rate. Article content 'This growth in population has been quite quick and quite sudden over the past couple years, and it's put significant pressure on our schools,' Nicolaides said. 'That's why we're stepping up to the plate and announcing our plan to invest $8.6 billion to build and renovate more than 100 schools to help address the space needs of our school divisions. There's no question there's a lot of demand and pressure out there.' Article content Article content For SCAP's next funding stream, 11 previously announced school projects will receive either design or construction funding. Article content In addition to the two Calgary projects, Nicolaides said the province will allocate money for school projects in Coalhurst, Donnelly, Falher, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie County, Lac La Biche, Red Deer, Strathmore and Wetaskiwin. The Strathmore project includes design funding for a replacement of Westmount School. Article content When complete, the projects will create more than 8,000 new and updated student spaces. Article content 'Most of the projects we're moving forward are outside of Calgary and Edmonton this round,' Nicolaides said. 'That helps other communities around the province recognize and understand that we're trying to achieve both goals; building space in our fast-growing communities while also ensuring we have the highest quality infrastructure as possible in some of our smaller communities.' Article content
CBC
15-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Alberta government to build 6 schools in Calgary area, 5 in Edmonton
The construction of 11 new schools in Edmonton and the Calgary region will happen through public-private partnerships, the provincial government says. Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides is set to publicly announce Saturday afternoon that the government will spend money on five new schools in Edmonton, three in Calgary and one each in the cities of Airdrie and Chestermere and the town of Okotoks — three communities near Calgary. Releasing money as soon as construction plans and sites are ready will help prevent projects from potentially losing a construction season, Nicolaides told CBC News earlier this week. "We can build the schools faster, and that's our top priority because we have a lot of enrolment pressure," Nicolaides said. "We want to build the schools as quickly as we possibly can." Premier Danielle Smith announced in September that the government is committing to accelerating construction and modernization of schools, in response to unprecedented enrolment growth across Alberta. Saturday's anticipated pre-budget announcement is part of that work. Funding for the 11 new school projects comes from a three-year, $2.1-billion commitment to construction spending the Alberta government announced in its 2024 budget, nearly a year ago. The government also announced its School Construction Accelerator Program in September, through which it promised to spend another $8.6 million over seven years, starting in 2025, to build and facelift more school. In this case, a public-private partnership — or, P3 — occurs when a private company, or a consortium of several businesses, bids on building a bundle of school projects. The winning group designs, builds and pays for the construction. It also owns and maintains the building for 30 years before handing it over to the provincial government. This approach allows the government to pay off the cost of the building, plus interest, over several decades. Some school divisions, however, have previously said the quality of some P3 school sites and level of maintenance failed to meet their expectations. The 11 new schools will be bundled into two contracts: one for the three high schools to be built in Calgary, Airdrie and Okotoks, and another for eight elementary-junior high schools in Edmonton, Calgary and Chestermere, according to a Friday email from Benji Smith, press secretary for Infrastructure Minister Pete Guthrie. The elementary-junior high schools should be constructed by 2028, Smith said, and the high schools could possibly be built by 2029. Unprecedented growth School divisions have had to figure out how to accommodate thousands more students arriving in Alberta in recent years. Provincial data suggests enrolment grew nearly four per cent from the 2022-23 school year to 2023-24. School divisions and some parents, particularly in the Edmonton and Calgary regions, have warned the government that, without building dozens of elementary, junior high and high schools quickly, most buildings will run out of space. Some jammed schools have already turned libraries, staff rooms and gymnasiums into ad hoc classrooms. Some suburban schools are so stuffed, they have had to turn neighbourhood students away. Last fall, Edmonton Catholic Schools said half of its buildings were at or above capacity; 38 Edmonton public schools were full. In Airdrie, north of Calgary, Rocky View School division's capital plan predicted its high schools would reach 111 per cent capacity this school year. "The reality is, there is no available capacity in which to accommodate Airdrie high school students with the ongoing growth," the plan says. The plan states a new high school in southwest Airdrie, for about 1,800 students, could open in 2028 at the earliest. It would create manageable enrolment in the city's other three high schools — but only for an estimated five years, should growth continue unabated, the document says. Announcements coming for 30 more schools The School Construction Accelerator Program includes a promise to announce 30 new school construction projects each year for three years. Nicolaides will reveal the list of the first 30 projects shortly after the provincial budget is released on Feb. 27, he said. The provincial government will also fund six to eight school modernization projects each of the three years, he said. No francophone schools will be included in Saturday's announcement, Nicolaides said, but more are likely coming in future bundles. The program also features a plan to build or renovate 15 charter schools in the next years, adding 12,500 more spaces in the charter system — basically doubling that system's enrolment. Those project approvals will be in addition to the 30 anticipated public, Catholic or francophone schools coming yearly, Nicolaides said. Pilot program to help cover private school projects For the first time, the Alberta government will launch a pilot program to fund part of the capital costs for some private school projects. The Education Ministry surveyed independent schools about the pilot, and it will be ready come budget day to reveal how the program will work, Nicolaides said. "There seemed to be a lot of preference toward a matching-grant-type of approach," he said, further explaining that the government would send $1 for every few dollars spent. The Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta has previously said it would prefer that the government not own private school buildings outright.
