The Edmonton Public School Board voted Tuesday to add the consolidation of Brightview, Britannia, Mayfield and Youngstown schools to its three-year capital plan.
The move means that if funding is approved by the province, Brightview and Youngstown schools would be closed and two new schools would be built on the Mayfield and Britannia school sites.
In 2016, the school board started consultations on what to do with the aging schools that are also facing decreased enrollment. The four schools have a total enrollment of 1,132 students and in some cases, less than half of the available classroom space is being utilized while Mayfield school is at 111 per cent capacity.
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The school board is also facing $750 million (and growing) in deferred maintenance fees across the division, which includes replacing vital infrastructure like roofs, floors, windows and heating systems.
“It’s an incredible amount that we can’t seem to climb out of,” EPSB Chair Michelle Draper told Global News. “We desperately need new schools and modernizations.”
Draper said in order to address the astronomical maintenance fees, the division needs to be creative by doing something like consolidating classrooms.
The division is asking for $43 million for the project but it’s marked as it’s eighth priority in Year 2 of its three-year capital plan.
“We would expect our first-year priorities would be funded first,” Draper said. “What this does help is to alert the province that the need is great and that we’ve been doing significant consultation.”
READ MORE: Edmonton’s Catholic and public school boards approve capital plans
Not everyone agrees that the consultation process was sufficient. The trustee for the area, Shelagh Dunn, was the only person who voted against the plan. Dunn said many people in the area were unable to take part in the process.
“There are families in some of the neighbourhoods that we are talking about today that face issues like food insecurity,” she said. “When you’re faced with a basic concern like that, it can sometimes outweigh your ability to participate in traditional engagement.”
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The EPSB board chair said she understood the concerns but added that the staff at Edmonton Public Schools reached out in multiple ways, including flyers, in-person sessions and surveys. Four in-person consultations were held and in total 496 people attended.
“The conversation is not finished,” Draper said. “With any new school, modernization or replacement, we do ongoing engagement.”
The school board can revise its capital plan twice a year: once in the fall and once in the spring.
READ MORE: New 1,800-student high school to be built in southwest Edmonton
“The time frame, depending on the complexity of the build, it’s an average of two to three years,” said Lorne Parker, assistant superintendent for the EPSB. “Once the funding is announced, we have to develop the plans for the structure as well as construct.”
Most of the students would be able to stay in their current schools during the replacement phase except for those that attend Mayfield School. Because the new school would be built on the old school’s footprint, students would need to be relocated during demolition and construction.
In the EPSB’s capital plan, the district’s top entry on its new construction priority list is a new high school in the southeast community called The Meadows. The cost of building the school is estimated at $79 million.
–With files from Phil Heidenreich
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