There will be winners and losers in Rocky View Schools (RVS) as 12 new modular classrooms have been approved for the public school division from the Alberta government to be constructed by next year; while at the same time RVS trustees approved the moving of 12 existing modulars away from some communities at the Sept. 19 board meeting.
Four of those 12 new modulars will land at Rainbow Creek Elementary in Chestermere and three at Fireside School in Cochrane. In Airdrie, two will land at Ralph McCall, and one at Herons Crossing. The final two will land at W.G. Murdoch High in Crossfield.
These new modulars are in addition to the nine new modulars allocated to RVS earlier this spring. A letter from Alberta Education on March 14 approved six new modular classrooms at Northcott Prairie School in Airdrie and three at Fireside School in Cochrane at that time.
The relocations, on the other hand, will impact communities in southeast Rocky View disproportionately this time around. The decision to move the modulars out of this region of Rocky View County was to meet more pressing growth needs in other areas of the division.
Of the 12 planned relocations, a total of eight modulars will be coming from Langdon School and four from Indus School. Both schools are located in RVS Ward 2, which covers the Indus, Langdon and Chestermere areas.
Of the eight from Langdon, two will be relocated to A.E. Bowers Elementary in Airdrie, four will be relocated to Heloise Lorimer in Airdrie, and two will be relocated to Chestermere High School.
Of the four from Indus, two will be relocated to Springbank Middle School, and two would be transferred to Cochrane Christian Academy, which just moved to its new building on Powell Street in the 2023/ 2024 school year .
Ward 2 Trustee Shelley Kinley said despite the four new modulars being designated to Rainbow Elementary and two of the units being relocated to Chestermere High, which the board would approve under the same motion, she would be voting against because of the outsized impact of the modular relocations on Indus and Langdon Schools.
“I know they had another 35 students coming to Langdon School, which is over and above their (enrolment) projection, and Indus is also having six per cent growth,” she said. “There is really just no capacity in those schools in terms of they are old schools. There are 19 classes of students in Langdon and there are 19 rooms. Those are the makerspaces. Those are the learning commons. I just want to point out how difficult it is in Rocky View Schools when we are forced to make these decisions.”
She said, at the end of the day, her vote wasn’t against Chestermere getting modulars or for Indus and Langdon keeping them, but rather a protest vote against the provincial government.
“I am very unhappy to see them, (the modulars in Langdon and Indus), go, and I am going to vote not in favour,” she stated. “Not because I don’t think they need to go where they need to go, but because we are fighting with the government. They are not providing what we need in our school division.”
However, the majority of the board of trustees were in favour of the motion for the placement of the new modulars and the relocation of the existing 12 units. And while thankful to the provincial government for designating 21 new modulars, and allowing the school board to relocate others to places of greater need, Chair Fiona Gilbert said the need for new schools was still paramount. She was hopeful Premier Danielle Smith’s $8.6 billion new schools’ announcement on Sept. 18 was indicative of greater things to come for Rocky View Schools.
“I am really also hopeful that this isn’t it, (and) based on what we heard (Sept. 18) and the day before, that there is more relief coming with capital builds and more modulars,” she said.
Ward 4 Trustee Norma Lang put forth the motion to accept the 12 new modulars as planned and relocate the 12 others as designated. She acknowledged the board was acting to place these units to triage a difficult situation as schools overall in RVS are currently at 93 per cent capacity, and stuffed to the gills with students in larger population centres at beyond 100 per cent in some instances.
“This is a good news story, having 24 new modulars, (with) 12 to move and 12 new ones in addition to the nine that are already getting ready to go into play,” she said in closing. “However, that said, we are continuing to triage an emergent situation and pressure points around our school division … (But) for or the moment we can be happy it is a little bit of pressure off of us.”
The Rocky View Schools board of trustees then approved the motion by a vote of 7-1, with Kinley opposed.
