BALGONIE, Sask. — Shovels are in the ground and construction is now underway on the major renovation project at Greenall High School in Balgonie.
The high school marked the groundbreaking at an event Tuesday afternoon outside the school, attended by dignitaries from the provincial government and Prairie Valley School Division, as well as several students and staff.
According to government officials, once completed, the high school will have an additional 1,050 square metres of space. The project will include a new, larger gymnasium, new classrooms and space for performing and visual arts. It is estimated the new classrooms will accommodate an additional 70 students.
Construction is led by Westridge Construction Ltd., with project management services provided by JPH Consulting Ltd. The project was designed by P3 Architecture Partnership.
Prairie Valley School Division board chair Janet Kotylak said the expansion, which includes a new addition to the west side of the high school, will “bring this school into a modernized learning environment that these students need and deserve.”
She said the current footprint of the high school is undersized and lacks modern facilities to serve 700 or more students.
“Right now we have a very undersized gym. We will have a fully functionally full court gym facility for them as well as a modernized arts space. Greenall has a very strong arts program and we want to be able to support that in the best way possible. The fitness center, all the programming spaces will be improved and modernized. It will be a school that students will want to come to and and it will serve them well.”
Kotylak said the school division consulted the community and “asked what they wanted to see for the students in their area and we were able to put that into the plans and hopefully make the facility what the school and community needs and wants.”
The project, which was approved in March 2023, is budgeted at $21 million. The high school already serves a wide and rapidly growing area that includes Balgonie, White City, Emerald Park and Pilot Butte. Education Minister Everett Hindley acknowledged that the expansion is needed to keep up with enrolment pressures from a growing population.
“This is I think something that's been on the wish list for not just for I think for this particular school, but for the school division in this community for some time now,” Hindley said.
“It's a great challenge to have in a province where we have a growing economy, growing communities and having to you know to be able to find the resources to address these sorts of pressures. Again it's a great challenge to have and one that we're proud to support.”
White City also seeking high school
Hindley also pointed to work being done in other nearby areas experiencing enrolment pressures.
He referred to “other work being done on the east side of Regina here with respect to schools within those divisions there and of course there's the White City conversation as well. So we've got a number of pressures that we're looking to deal with and we're happy to be here today to announce this is one of those components to help address some of the growth on this side of the province.”
There has been considerable lobbying from nearby White City about the need for a new high school in that community to address its rapidly growing population.
Hindley said the ministry has been in discussions with Prairie Valley School Division and the community and has had the opportunity to meet with council on the issue. He also said White City-Qu'Appelle MLA Brad Crassweller has “done an excellent job” of keeping in contact with elected officials, the school division, families and students.
“I understand that the school division has identified it as a one of their major priorities for to be submitted to the Ministry of Education,” Hindley said.
“We work with all 27 school divisions around the province to have them identify to us at the ministry and at the government their top three major projects and White City is now on that list for them. So as part of that we as a government take that back and compile it with every other project that's submitted to us to the provincial government — whether it's a replacement school, a brand new school which is being requested in this case to address some of the the growth in White City, or a major renovation project like we're talking about here today. So we'll take that that information back as we make our decisions for future expansion and additional capital projects in the years to come.”
The opposition NDP has pledged that a high school would be built in White City if the party takes power. At the legislature earlier Tuesday, Opposition Leader Carla Beck said she was “glad for the students and the community around Greenall. It has been a very, very long time that renovations and expansion has been needed there.”
However, Beck added, “we still see pressures on the east side of Regina and around the White City area when it comes to student population.”
Beck said the government “time and time again fails to plan into the future. Building high schools, as a government, you get a bit of leeway. You know how many children are through elementary school. You get a fair amount of time to be able to plan for those high schools. I've heard high schools promised time and time again by this government, but they fail to be built. We have a government that holds themselves a parade and a press conference when they're 70 per cent complete on a school that is at least 10 years behind schedule in Regina.”
Hindley has noted that since 2008, the provincial government has committed approximately $2.9 billion to school infrastructure, including 78 new schools, of which 54 have been completed, and 32 major renovation projects, of which 28 are complete.
