Photo: Shaun Penner

By Shaun Penner

Five Mile Site

PWPSD looking to build new high school alongside Harry Balfour replacement

Apr 28, 2020 | 2:54 PM

A new high school remains priority number one for the Peace Wapiti Public School Division. However, that priority has shifted to building a new Grade 9-12 school at the Five Mile Hall site to go alongside the replacement for Harry Balfour school.

The division has updated its 2021-2024 capital plan, which now includes a request for a new high school at the site, trumping its previous desire to see a replacement for Peace Wapiti Academy.

The decision to change course, according to Deputy Superintendent Darren Young, is because the County of Grande Prairie has allocated $6.5 million to install municipal services at the Five Mile Hall site as part of its 2020 budget.

With those services to be installed, construction of a new high school on that site could be included in the County of Grande Prairie’s list of “shovel-ready” projects, which the provincial government has requested from each municipality as part of its COVID-19 economic recovery plan.

“The commitment of municipal services at the Five Mile Hall Project site would remove a significant hurdle in the province’s school project approval process,” said Young.

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A desire for a new high school at Five Mile does not mean the school division is not looking to also replace PWA. The division has submitted this request to go hand-in-hand with a new PWA, once a site to the north of Grande Prairie can be identified.

“We felt that a new school, a smaller high school would be a viable alternative to a replacement school at this time,” said Young. “We still are working with the County of Grande Prairie, and we did leave a replacement school for PWA on our capital plan, but we’ve moved that down [the priority list].”

Young says the Five Mile site is not a suitable location for PWA’s replacement for a number of reasons, including for students who would need to travel from the West County area through the City, making transportation an issue.

He adds this new plan would also help alleviate pressure on the growing student population at Peace Wapiti Academy while a suitable replacement site is sought out, as PWA is projected to hit 100 per cent capacity by 2023.

Back in March, the Government of Alberta approved funding for the construction of a new K-8 school at Five Mile Hall, which will replace Harry Balfour. Young says he is hoping construction on that school can begin in the spring of 2021.

The new high school, if approved, would then go on the same site.

“Our capital plan is simply our wish list of our requests to the Province of Alberta for our new schools and our school replacements,” said Young. “At this time, submitting a request doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll get an approval.”