Photo: Shaun Penner

By Shaun Penner

School Space

St. John Paul II already in need of more classroom space

Jun 25, 2019 | 5:30 AM

A lack of space is already becoming an issue at St. John Paul II Catholic School.

The school, which is just finishing its second academic year this week, will need at least 10 modular classrooms by the 2020-2021 school year. This is due in large part to a large cohort of students that will be entering the high school level within the next few years, while also factoring in the growing population of the Grande Prairie area.

This is not something that comes as a surprise to Superintendent Karl Germann. According to him, the school board had projected current student enrollment numbers accurately, but several changes were made during the construction phase of the young school.

“Originally, when that school was approved by the Jim Prentice government, it was 1100 kids. Then it was tweaked down to 1000, and then it was tweaked down again to 750 as the government was trying to save some money when they were building schools,” said Germann. “So now we are at the point of that school will have about 800-and-some kids in it in 2020-2021.”

The French Immersion offering is also a big reason the school will see a large influx of students coming in. Germann notes that Ecole St Gerard (grades Pre-K to seven) is operating at capacity as it is, and the district is seeing many students continuing their French education through high school. That leaves St. John Paul II as the lone option for French and catholic education in the area.

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With that, the school board has already sent out a request for funding help from the provincial government to have the modulars moved to the school site. Germann says they are hopeful to get the governments help on that, but the district will have some costs associated with that.

“What they (the government) don’t do is help you with the links. Our board has always made that decision to build links, so that they are attached to the school and they are not out in the middle of a field and kids are isolated,” said Germann. “It’s an important part to be part of the school.”

Germann says the work will begin as soon as possible, as the need to have the modular in place is just over a year from now and that amount of work cannot be done over one summer. However, it is not known at this time when the governments decision will be made, especially as the Blue Ribbon Panel continues to comb over the government’s financials to find cost savings.

“The growth is already there, the kids are already there, we just have to make sure that we have enough spaces for those kids.”