PRINCE ALBERT — The Prince Albert Catholic School Division says École St. Mary High School’s status as a dual track school is behind the request to add two relocatable classrooms.
School division trustees voted to apply for two new classrooms to the Ministry of Education at their last regular meeting last week. Director of Education Lorel Trumier said that growing enrolments are also a factor and they want to keep ahead of the increase.
“We were, five years ago, looking for portables because we know the writing is on the wall that our enrolments growing and increasing,” she said. “We need to make sure that the relocatables are in place. We know that it takes a few years to get that we're going to resubmit for sure.”
This is the third consecutive year the board has submitted a request for relocatable classrooms. Without the new classrooms, reads a board memo, the school may struggle to address future student population levels.
Dual-track schools require spaces for both English and French Immersion students at each level.
Catholic Division finalizes plans to meet with education minister
After originally having their meeting with Minister of Education Jeremy Cockrill planned for later in January, the Prince Albert Catholic School Division has now finalized a meeting on Jan. 15, 2024.
The board of education received an update from Director of Education Lorel Trumier during their regular meeting on Monday.
“We finalized them. We're excited by that and we're setting ourselves up to share very poignant areas that we want to focus on to advocate for our students in our system,” Trumier said.
The board will be meeting with Cockrill on Jan. 15 at 9 a.m., Cockrill has also scheduled to meet with the Saskatchewan Rivers board later that day with the division finalizing plans at their December meeting.
Trumier said it is common for a minister to want to take care of as much business as possible on one trip
“I suspect that he's going to be efficient with his travel for sure, and I know this Minister wants to get out to every school division in the province,” Trumier said.
The two divisions met with previous Education Minister Dustin Duncan in October 2022.
As well, the board was updated on the latest production by Upstage Productions. The new production has moved to January 2024.
“It's going to come pretty quickly here in January,” Trumier said. “We generally have it in November and there is some hope that we're actually going to be able to do it in the lecture theatre at Saint Mary. We'll be getting possession back of that space here shortly.”
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