As of the 2024 – 2025 school year, a catholic high school program is reportedly not an option for students living in Fairview.
The announcement comes following the announcement that the Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools put work on the St. Thomas More School building on hold indefinitely. According to a release from the Fairview School Division, on Monday, December 18th trustees from the Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools reportedly met and put together a short-term, mid-term and long-term plan for the St. Thomas More community. While staff and students will remain at the Northwestern Polytechnic campus until the end of the school year, the school board is proposing in 2024 students in kindergarten to grade 9 will move into a standalone modular school on the campus. The standalone modular school would include a library and office spaces, plus playground facilities. This operation has reportedly been sent to Alberta Education and Alberta Infrastructure for consideration.
A release from the Peace River School Division reads, “Regarding the high school program at St. Thomas More, GPCSD has informed their school community that continuing a Catholic high school program in Fairview is no longer a feasible option. As a result, these students will be encouraged to enrol at Peace River School Division’s Fairview High School after the current school year.”
The PRSD says they look forward to welcoming these students to the “Fairview Cobra family.” The two school divisions are reportedly in talks about the possibility of offering a Religion class that would be open to all students at Fairview High.
In October a value-scoping session was held to discuss the future of education in the Fairview community, with a popular option from that session being the two divisions to put forward a joint request “for a high school facility on the NWP property, and a separate K-6 joint-use facility on another property within Fairview.” A possible option for the other location is said to be the Fairview High School grounds.
“Placing a Jr./Sr. high school on the NWP property makes a lot of sense to the PRSD. By doing so, students would have increased access to various CTS programming through a collegiate school model between the PRSD and NWP,” continues the PRSD release.
Last week the GPDCS announced that St. Thomas More Catholic School is “officially without a building” according to the Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools, citing costs related to removing asbestos and increased project scope as the reasons they will be putting the project on hold indefinitely. At the time the two divisions put out a joint release this decision has expedited the need for a new school Fairview. However, at the time of the statement two school divisions stated that a new building is at least five years away from being completed.