After plans to build a new public junior high in Morinville stalled, Alberta’s Education Minister met with town and school division officials over the issue.

Officials representing the Town of Morinville and the Sturgeon School Division met with Education Minister David Eggen behind closed doors Wednesday morning.

Following the meeting, municipal and school officials said they were optimistic, but there still wasn’t a timeline on when a school could be built.

The meeting came after the school board notified parents in Morinville that plans to build a public junior high in the area had stalled due to unresolved issues with the site, including traffic access, and safety.

After Wednesday’s meeting, the province is offering help to make the site work.

“We had a number of suggestions from the municipality and the school board as to how to overcome some roadblocks,” Eggen said. “I will be speaking with my colleagues in municipal affairs, infrastructure, transportation, to start work on those things.”

The Mayor of Morinville said she was ‘pleased’ with the results of the meeting.

“We were really pleased with that movement, to move forward, to have everyone sit together to have these conversations, because we are really in a place where we can’t make those decisions about how it will impact Alberta Transportation, they need to be there to help us,” Mayor Lisa Holmes said.

Sturgeon School Division Board Chair Tracy Nowak said she is hopeful issues with the land the school would stand on can be dealt with.

“So we’re hopeful with the minister’s help, and the staff in the various department, transportation, infrastructure and municipalities, that we will be able to deal with those constraints on the allocated site,” Nowak said.

Due to the delays, parents had been told the school board would bus some kids to other communities – now, provincial officials said they’ll add capacity in Morinville to keep the students in town.

The public school was expected to open in 2017 – a new date has not yet been set. It’s estimated the school will take about two and a half years to build, but that can’t start until issues with the site are addressed.

With files from Bill Fortier