At a public Catholic School Board meeting Tuesday, trustees approved the district’s three-year capital plan, including a plan to amalgamate students from four east Edmonton schools into one new school.

According to the school board, three elementary schools, St. Brendan, St. James and St. Gabriel, along with St. Kevin Junior High, are getting too old to improve and maintain.

“The total amount in deferred maintenance for these four schools has now reached over $22,000,000, and replacing this with one new school with a capacity of 750 students is the only fiscally responsible decision,” Trustee Becky Kallal said in a press release.

Kallal went on to say the district was planning to put an additional $10 million into the construction of the replacement school, after other properties were sold.

All four schools are at least 50 years old; the board said a replacement Kindergarten to Grade 9 school would be built in the area of 72 Street and 96A Avenue.

That part of the capital plan struck a chord with some parents of students at the four schools – some believe the replacement school would not be big enough.

“The four schools combined have 761 students enrolled currently next year, there is an expected increase,” Lana Brenneis, PAC Chair at St. Gabriel’s School said. “In St. Gabriel’s alone we’re expecting projected enrollment of 181.”

Kallal said in an interview Tuesday that the board had not decided to move forward with the plan to close the four schools, it’s only included in their capital plan.

That particular element to the capital plan is actually the board’s third priority.

The first priority is building an elementary/junior high school in Windermere, the district said the new facility is needed as southwest Edmonton continues to grow – and schools in Terwillegar are facing 94 percent capacity.

The second priority outlined in the plan is the construction of an elementary/junior high in Ellerslie-Summerside, the board said populations continue to grow in that area, and another school in Heritage Valley.

A number of other projects were also outlined, including an expansion of Holy Trinity’s High School, including building a theatre for the school, and nine modernizations, including Archbishop O’Leary High School.

The board’s capital plan will be sent to Alberta Education for review.

High school completion rates in Catholic district high

While a number of parents at Tuesday’s meeting were not impressed with the board’s capital plan, many were pleased to hear statistics showing high school completion rates in the district had continued to rise.

The district said the May 2013 Accountability Report from Alberta Education shows an increase of 19.7 percent in the high school completion rate over ten years.

Those statistics translate to about 500 more students graduating, compared to 10 years ago – and the 3 year rate has improved 1.6 percent.

“All districts of course are doing what they can to ensure high school students complete high school,” Edmonton Catholic School District spokesperson Lori Nagy said. “We are very pleased in our district that we’ve exceeded the province as well.

According to the district, just over 80 percent, or 8 in 10 high school students, are graduating in three years.

With files from Laura Tupper