Officials with Edmonton Public Schools announced Thursday that two new schools would not be opening in time for the 2017-2018 school year, as scheduled.
Edmonton Public officials said both Kim Hung School and Shauna May Seneca School would open to students in January, 2018, not on September 5, 2017, as previously scheduled.
Opening for both schools has been pushed back, officials said, due to construction delays on both sites.
The school district said contractors encountered issues at the worksite for Shauna May Seneca School, as the site had been a wetlands area, and it became waterlogged after a lot of rainfall.
The process of drying out the worksite to lay the foundation took longer than expected.
As a result, students slated to start at both schools would attend class at ‘host schools’ until the winter break. Students set to go to Kim Hung School will be hosted at Michael Phair School, and students slated to attend Shauna May Seneca School will be hosted at Jan Reimer School.
Officials said about 650 students are slated to go to Kim Hung School, 500 kids are expected to go to Shauna May Seneca School. Currently, between 200 and 300 students go to Michael Phair School, and there are up to 400 students at Jan Reimer School.
The contingency plan puts both schools at or over their capacity of 900 students.
Students and staff are expected to move to their permanent locations on January 8, 2018.
Both schools will offer Kindergarten to Grade 7 in the new school year, with Grade 8 added in 2018-2019, and Grade 9 added the following school year.
With files from Dan Grummett
