A brand new public high school is ready to welcome hundreds of students in southeast Edmonton later this week, but school board officials stress there is still a need for more space as enrolment numbers continue to grow.
Elder Dr. Francis Whiskeyjack High School, located along 17th Street at 24th Avenue, will open its doors on Thursday.
“It’s great for the southeast community, for sure. Our students are anxiously awaiting the opening of a brand new high school,” principal Tammy Tchir said Monday morning as members of the media got a tour of the building.
“I’m actually thrilled with how ready to go we are. … We are 95 per cent there so I’m super excited about that.”
At more than 234,000 square feet, the four-storey high school has a capacity of 2,400 students, 150 staff and 103 classrooms.
The school will be open for Grade 10 and Grade 11 students this year, with Grade 12 being added in the 2025-26 school year.
Tchir said about 850 students will attend the school this year, which leaves room for growth next year. School enrolment is closed, Tchir said.
Despite the size of the school, the board chair of Edmonton Public Schools said more space is desperately needed to keep up with demand.
“Over the next 10 years we expect to need to open up 50 new schools,” said Julie Kusiek.
Class sizes at Elder Dr. Francis Whiskeyjack High School will be between 24 and 36 students, according to Tchir. Kusiek said the school division is welcoming 6,600 more students this year compared to last fall, and the growth doesn’t stop in September.
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“Last year, we had 100 new students coming every single week into Edmonton Public Schools and we have no indication that that will be slowing down anytime soon.”
While growth is happening right across the city, the public board said the greatest growth is happening in southwest, southeast and west Edmonton.
Kusiek said the school division does its best to accommodate as many students as close to home as possible, but sometimes keeping up with the demand means larger class sizes, students travelling farther distances to get to school or having a math class in a classroom meant for food studies, for example.
“There’s a real urgency and I think the numbers tell a very strong story,” Kusiek said. “The numbers are the numbers — 6,600 new students in one year is quite substantial. This is a large school that’s opening this year but for a capacity of 2,400. So you can see that there certainly is a need for some catchup for some new school construction announcements.”
Edmonton Public Schools’ three-year capital plan outlines the need for nine new schools and three modernization projects.
“When we do the math, our projections are that there will be approximately 176,000 students at Edmonton Public Schools by 2033. That means we need 50 new schools to open in the next 10 years.”
Over the summer, Kusiek said additional funding for schools was announced and the public division will receive about $22 million. The board will meet in September to discuss exactly how that funding will be allocated.
The Edmonton public system isn’t the only one feeling the pressure. Edmonton Catholic Schools said it currently serves more than 49,000 students and expects to exceed 50,000 students this school year. The division said 40 per cent of its schools are full or overcapacity.
“In these schools, every space available, including learning commons and staff rooms, is being utilized for teaching and learning,” said a statement from Edmonton Catholic Schools.
Father Michael McCaffery Catholic High School is set to open next week in south Edmonton’s Heritage Valley neighbourhood. Additionally, the division received approval for 33 modular classrooms.
“While they will bring some relief, they will not provide relief for school startup,” the school division said.
“Our enrolment numbers speak volumes about the growing demand for publicly funded Catholic education in Edmonton. An ever-increasing number of families entrust us with the sacred responsibility of educating their children and helping them to grow to their fullest potential.”
Edmonton Catholic Schools’ capital plan outlines a need for two new high schools and four new K-9 schools.
Global News reached out to Alberta Education for comment on this story. In a statement, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides noted more and more people are moving to Alberta, “and that means K-12 schools are seeing rising enrollment.”
“We are making record investments in education to accommodate this growth,” he said. “Over the next three years, more than $1.2 billion will be invested to address classroom complexity and enrollment growth, which will go directly to hiring over 3,000 more teachers and other educational staff.”
Nicolaides added that since 2019, his government has committed to 30 school projects in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region (EMR) “to add more than 29,000 new and modernized student spaces.”
“In addition to the school projects, we are investing in the relocation of 18 modular classrooms and 72 new ones in the EMR this upcoming school year to create more than 2,200 student spaces in high growth communities.”
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