With days to go before school is in session, the public and Catholic school districts in Edmonton are putting finishing touches to make sure more than a dozen new schools are ready for students.
A total of eleven new schools are opening under Edmonton Public Schools, crews were working Tuesday to finish work on Constable Daniel Woodall School.
“We’ve been in a tight timeline for these schools,” Lorne Parker, executive director of infrastructure with the Edmonton Public School district, said.
Nine of the eleven schools will open in September, the remaining two will open in January, something officials said is a first for the district since 1913.
Students enrolled at the two schools opening in January, Kim Hung and Shauna May Seneca, will start the year at two new schools opening closes to them. Officials said the delay was caused by a shortage of steel.
“So we are running two concurrent communities in a single school, and when we move them in January they will already be together as a school unit,” Parker said.
The Edmonton Catholic School District will open five new schools – one of those is Christ the King School.
The school will serve students from Kindergarten to Grade 9 – a tour of the school Tuesday showed a variety of seating options, and desks that fit together.
Officials told CTV News their focus will be on “collaborative and communicative learning”.
The north-side school was built in the same design as two other schools in the same district set to open this year.
It’s expected the new schools will ease enrolment pressure in other parts of the city.
“Some of the schools were at 130 to 140 percent, those enrolments are being brought down, it’s a big relieve to the district,” Boris Radyo, assistant superintendent of educational planning said.
Students will be back in class on September 5, and officials said the new schools will be ready.
Edmonton Catholic Schools expects to have nearly 43,000 students this year.
With files from Nicole Weisberg
