Site chosen for 2nd joint-use elementary school in Regina's Harbour Landing
A site has been announced for a new joint-use elementary school in Regina's Harbour Landing neighbourhood — an area of the city where student enrolment has been outstripping available classroom space.
In a news release issued Thursday afternoon, the Saskatchewan government said the site is roughly four-and-a-half hectares of land at the corner of Gordon Road and Campbell Street.
Saskatchewan Education Minister Dustin Duncan said it was a challenge to find a suitable location.
"When you're in the subdivision itself, I think everybody knows how busy it is, and just the availability of land was going to be a challenge," Duncan said.
"You go north and you're at the airport. You go east and you're on the other side of the Lewvan. You go south and it's the Number 1 highway. And so, really, there was only one direction to go."
The new joint-use facility is expected to be open by 2026, the government said. When it was first announced in 2020, the province expected it to cost $40 million to build.
On Thursday, the province said a memorandum of understanding co-signed by the Ministry of Education, the City of Regina, the Regina Public School Division and the Regina Catholic School Division outlines that the city will be responsible for acquiring the land, while costs for servicing the land will be shared by the province and city.
The province and school boards are currently working together to determine the servicing requirements, in consultation with the city, the government said.
It said design is still underway, in consultation with the community based on enrolment projections from the Regina Catholic and public school divisions.
The government is promising the facility will provide state-of-the-art learning environments operated by both school divisions and is expected to accommodate a total of approximately 850 students. It will also include a 90-space child care centre, and a community space with a kitchen area that can be used both by schools and the broader Harbour Landing community, the government said.
Need for more space
"We heard clearly from families that more educational space was needed in the rapidly growing Harbour Landing community," Regina Board of Education chair Tara Molson said in the government release.
When speaking to reporters on Thursday, Molson was asked if the new school's projected capacity of 850 students was going to be enough.
"What our projections tell us is when that school opens it'll be full," Molson said.
Shortly after École Harbour Landing Elementary School and St. Kateri Tekakwitha School opened as a joint school in Harbour Landing in the fall of 2017, Regina Public Schools signalled it was already time to start planning for a second facility in the neighbourhood because of the area's growing population.
This past December, a spokesperson for Regina Public Schools told CBC News that the enrolment at Harbour Landing was 1044 students, even though the design capacity is 675.
On Thursday, Terry Lazarou said the enrolment was now 1,059.
Lazarou said the school, like all of the division's schools, can operate with higher enrolments than the design capacity. Lazarou said this has been achieved through adjustments to recess times and "additional supports" to manage the enrolment demand.
Also in December, a spokesperson for Regina Catholic Schools said enrolment at St. Kateri Tekakwitha was 686 students, but the building was designed for 675 students.
On Thursday, enrolment was pegged at 696 students as of Feb. 28.
