PRINCE ALBERT — The Saskatchewan Rivers School Division has approved three major capital infrastructure projects to be completed over the next three years.
The board approved the major and minor capital recommendations to be sent to the Ministry of Education at their meeting on Jan. 13. The facilities committee discussed the projects at a meeting in November 2024.
The major and minor capital report was presented by Superintendent of Facilities Mike Hurd.
Hurd said higher enrolment in places like Saskatoon and Regina means those areas have received higher priority for new builds in recent years, which makes it tougher for other school divisions to get major projects built.
"They've got no schools to put kids in in those places. That's the answers that we get,” Hurd said. “There's only so much money and they have to tackle this problem with the influx of immigrants and the kids in these in these cities like Regina and Saskatoon and I think Warman and Martensville are affected by it too.”
The top major capital priority is the construction of a new K to 12 school to replace W.P. Sandin High School and Shellbrook Elementary School. Second, on the list is renovation and renewal of Carlton Comprehensive High School and the third is construction of a new school to replace Ecole Arthur Pechey School.
The Shellbrook consolidation project was the top priority in 2024 for the 2025 budget and remains in place for when the 2026 budget is passed by the province.
"When you're looking at priorities and facilities, you don't want to jump around,” Hurd explained. “If it's a priority for you now, the only thing that you change that priority would be a change in programming. Something would have to change the way you do things for it not to be a priority anymore.
Hurd explained that the logic has not changed in regards to Shellbrook. The reasons they had for supporting a new K-12 school remain in place.
"We still see that consolidation of the elementary school and the high school into a K-12 would suit that community very well,” he said. “It would handle the education needs there for now and into the future and that hasn't changed. The board hasn't changed their focus on that, and it just makes good sense to us out there to try and get a K-12 school and do some consolidation. It seems to be what the province wants to see anyway.”
WP Sandin is 66 years old and is in need of replacement, according to Hurd. The Facilities Committee., which includes Hurd, several board members and CFO Jerrold Pidborochynski helps to lead decision making.
“There's a lot of conversation that goes into that when we meet and talk about our division and we use the (Facilities) Master Plan,” he said.
“We use that as a tool and it gives us a guideline of where we want to go. If you read that master plan, WP Standin and then Carlton, those are both right up there is one and two.”
Hurd said Carlton remains a second priority because of the age of the building.
"It is at a time now where it needs to have some improvements made. Obviously, the CPAC done in 2014 was a huge improvement to the school, but the original tech portion and Carlton portion now needs to have some modernization, so that's why that's the second priority,” Hurd said.
He said Arthur Pechey is still doing well because the division added some portables when it was changed to a dual-track school for the West Side.
“But the school is old. It's one of those baby boomer schools, (built) in the early 60s or late 50s,” Hurd said."It's already had its second life cycle and it's going to be a time when infrastructure is going to fail there and it's going to have to be replaced.
“In that area the city there is growth and that's a place where if you're going to replace a school, Arthur Pechey would be a good a good fix for our division up in that area for sure.”
The Ministry of Education Infrastructure Branch invites all school divisions to submit their top three major capital and top two minor capital funding requests by Jan. 31.
The Ministry has changed the way capital submissions are dealt with. They broke the capital submissions into two categories with some being higher priority handled through capital allocation such as school replacement.
Other necessary items did not rank high enough and the ministry made the decision to split them off.
The top minor capital priority is the renovations and renewal of Christopher Lake Public School and in second place is renovation and renewal of Red Wing School.
Hurd explained that Christopher Lake School has been holding up well. It was scheduled to be replaced several years ago before an 11th-hour decision by the province to build a new Paddockwood School.
"It never worked out there, they never had the student population out there, and that school ended up closing. (It) was just a poor choice on the board at the time, and so poor Christopher Lake just struggled along,” Hurd said.
Christopher Lake School is currently holding strong for population and is at 120 per cent student capacity.
“Numbers are holding,” Hurd said. “It's an old school and we've done as much as we can really do. We put money into it to try and make it the best we can for the age of the school … and we know that we're not getting a replacement.”
Another obstacle is a rule from the province according to Hurd.
"So if you have a school that could handle (population) within 36 kilometres that could be upgraded or accommodate that school then they probably won't approve a rebuild, so we're going after an addition and renovation and we're hoping that we'd have more success that way,” Hurd said.
All submissions are reviewed, prioritized and placed on both the major and minor lists. Decisions on awarding funding will be announced on budget day 2026.
