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“It’s exactly what the students and families need, and we’ve been advocating for this for a long time.”
Published Sep 09, 2024 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 4 minute read
Regina Catholic Schools board chair Shauna Weninger, left, and Regina Public Schools board chair Sarah Cummings Truszkowski, right, stand in the foreground at the site announcement for two joint-use schools in east Regina on Sept. 9, 2024. Photo by Larissa Kurz /REGINA LEADER-POST
A site has been chosen for two long-awaited joint-use schools promised for east Regina, the government announced Monday.
A new elementary school and a separate high school will both be built on a large lot at the end of Arens Road to serve the Towns and Greens on Gardiner neighbourhoods. Each school is considered a joint-use facility because it’ll be shared by two divisions: Regina Public Schools and Regina Catholic Schools.
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“It’s exactly what Regina needs,” Regina Public board chair Sarah Cummings Truszkowski said Monday during an on-site announcement. “It’s exactly what the students and families need, and we’ve been advocating for this for a long time.”
Currently just a swath of dirt and prairie grass, the site’s unveiling marks an official start of the capital projects approved by the province earlier this spring in its 2024 budget.
The new high school will accommodate up to 2,000 students, alleviating pressures on Campbell Collegiate, Sheldon-Williams Collegiate and Balfour Collegiate. The elementary school will be large enough for another 1,400 students, with 800 spots allotted to the Regina Public division and 600 to Regina Catholic. There will also be 180 child-care spaces, split between the two builds.
“I think this is a really great announcement, not only for the Towns but really Regina as a whole, and will enable kids to go to school closer to where they live,” said Minister of Education Jeremy Cockrill at the announcement.
Both divisions have been advocating for a new high school in the Towns neighbourhood for at least a decade, while the request for an elementary school is at least four years old.
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Regina Catholic board chair Shauna Weninger said movement on the new schools is cause for “extreme celebration” among east-side families, and a project that she agreed is “well overdue.”
But Weninger and Cummings Truszkowski both expect the new facilities to open very close to, if not at, maximum capacity based on the population growth in the area.
“Schools in our division are very full,” said Cummings Truszkowski. “Classrooms have high numbers of students, high (pupil-teacher ratios). This will be a very full school upon opening.”
For the past several years, Regina Public has seen enrolment grow by around 800 students, which is the equivalent of a medium-sized elementary school. That growth is expected to continue, noted both divisions.
“We know this is a growing city in a very quickly growing province, and so we’re trying to respond to that as quickly as we can and advance these projects as quickly as we can,” said Cockrill when asked if there was a timeline for completion of the new schools, adding there is no date yet on when shovels will hit the ground.
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Similar initiatives have taken several years to get underway and the provincial government currently has a total of four joint-use school projects ongoing in Regina.
St. Raphael School and Tawâw School in northeast Regina is scheduled to open for the 2025-26 school year. Construction also began on a second joint-use school in Harbour Landing this August after several years of limbo as the province looked for a large enough property. Both were approved by the Ministry of Education in 2021.
After Monday’s announcement, NDP Leader Carla Beck called on the Saskatchewan Party to ensure the east-side schools aren’t delayed any further.
“This is a school we have known is needed in southeast Regina for (more than) a decade,” said Beck, a former Regina Public Schools trustee. “It’s about time. This is a government that hops to it when it’s close to an election, but spends a lot of time in the months and years in between not addressing concerns.
“I hope the government does more than just announce it and gets some shovels in the ground and gets that school built.”
Beck is already on the campaign trail in preparation for the coming provincial election, slated to take place on or before Oct. 28.
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Last week, Beck promised to fund education by an additional $2 billion if elected premier, followed by promises to build a long-desired high school in White City and a new facility to replace St. Michael’s School in Moose Jaw.
Cockrill responded that Beck’s latest pledge “failed to mention” the $69-million joint-use school being built in Moose Jaw’s South Hill neighbourhood.
“Capital projects are always a priority topic, whichever community you’re in,” he added.
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