Families of west Edmonton Catholic school told students will be moved to south-side school due to overcrowding

Students at a west Edmonton Catholic school will be bused to a school in southwest Edmonton next year due to overcrowding, Edmonton Catholic Schools said in a letter to parents distributed on Thursday.

Starting in September 2023, Kindergarten to Grade 3 students in the Rosenthal and Secord neighbourhoods who would have or are currently attending Bishop David Motiuk Catholic Elementary and Junior High School will be bused to Joan Carr Catholic Elementary and Junior High in the Keswick neighbourhood, 16 kilometres away.

A Google Map shows the distance between Bishop David Motiuk Catholic Elementary and Junior High School and Joan Carr Catholic Elementary and Junior High.

Grade 4 and 5 students will be redesignated to Joan Carr, as well, in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

A new K-9 Catholic school was approved for the Lewis Farms neighbourhood in the spring, and the board anticipates it will open in September 2026, at which point the west Edmonton students will be moved to the new school.

The letter goes on to say when Bishop David Motiuk opened in 2017, it had an enrollment of 695 students.

Currently, 18 modular trailers, including two outside the school’s property, have been installed to bring the school’s capacity to 920 students.

As of Sept. 29, 2022 there were 1,381 students enrolled in the school, and the board is projecting that will jump to approximately 1,700 in the next three years.

Transportation costs for impacted students will be waived until the new school is completed.

The board says siblings of impacted students may also choose to attend Joan Carr School, but families will have to pay transportation costs. 

“SAD THAT THIS WAS THE OPTION”

Marianna Tsenekos has two daughters who currently attend Bishop David Motiuk School.

“I’m a little bit disappointed that that was even an option, and sad that that was the option that was chosen,” she told CTV News Edmonton.

Her youngest daughter is currently in Grade 2, and her older daughter is in Grade 5.

Next year her youngest will be redesignated to Joan Carr School, while her oldest will have the choice to remain at Bishop David Motiuk.

“She’s going to be split up away from her older sister, and have to go to a new different school,” she said.

The family has been part of the school community since 2017.

“I’ve been part of the parent committee since just before the school opened, we have ties with the school, we love the school.”

In addition to splitting up her two girls, Tsenekos has concerns about the distance to the new school.

She says a school bus driver shortage makes it difficult for her children to get to their existing school in a timely manner.

“The bus driver that drives my girls to school has to do another route before they come and do that route, so every single day I get a notification on my phone that they’re going to be late to get picked up, and they’re going to be late to come home.”

She also worries about putting her child on a bus on Anthony Henday Drive every day.

“It’s still a long ways to go. Edmonton weather is, it can be great one day, and really, really cold the next day, so I think there is a safety concern.”

She’s frustrated that it’s taken so long to get new schools approved for the growing neighbourhoods in west Edmonton.

“Statistically, you can see that these new neighbourhoods have a lot of young families included in their population, so the province, and the city, which was issuing permits, I think have to coordinate and plan a whole lot better.”

The province tells CTV News school boards are responsible for determining school attendance areas as well as redirecting students to other schools because of capacity issues.

Edmonton Catholic Schools released the following written statement about the decision.

“There is no solution that is going to be perfect as we await the opening of the K-9 Catholic school in Lewis Farms. We know that this decision is concerning to some families, but we believe this is the best solution with the least disruptions to learning.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nahreman Issa.