A new Catholic elementary school will be built in south Edmonton after the Alberta government announced full funding for the project on Wednesday morning.
The province has committed $25 million to build the school in the Orchards at Ellerslie. The school was on the Edmonton Catholic School Board’s wish list in spring of 2016 but hadn’t received construction funding until Wednesday.
“You’re seeing tremendous growth down here with young families in south Edmonton in the Ellerslie area,” Education Minister David Eggen said at the announcement.
“The need for the school is clear as the student population in south Edmonton continues to grow quite considerably.”
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The kindergarten to Grade 6 school will create 600 new student spaces in hopes of alleviating the enrolment pressures at nearby elementary schools. Edmonton Catholic Schools projects that by 2020, 400 Catholic elementary students will be living in the area.
The education minister also announced funding to the tune of $2 million for design work to begin on a Catholic high school completion centre in west Edmonton’s Lewis Farms.
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Eggen said the facility will “help address west Edmonton’s growing high school population and to help students graduate.”
“The intention of that is for students to be able to come back and pick up individual courses, perhaps in their fourth or even fifth year of school so that they can graduate.”
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Design work will coincide with the City of Edmonton’s planning of the Lewis Farms recreation centre, Eggen said. The school and rec centre are planned for the same location.
Construction funding for the high school completion centre, which is pegged between $15 million and $17 million, has not yet been approved.
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