The Grande Prairie and District Catholic School and Peace River School Division’s Board of Trustees have passed a motion to add a new joint-use K-9 facility for GPCSD and K-6 facility in the community of Fairview.
The school divisions say by ensuring both capital plans include similar priorities, both divisions are displaying a “strong willingness” to the provincial government to collaborate to create the best possible educational facility for students in the Fairview area.
Crystal Owens, Chair of the Peace River School Division Board of Trustees says her school division is used to collaboration between divisions, and often opens up opportunities for schools in rural areas to offer more options for students.
“It’s not an unfamiliar concept for us, we have a very successful joint-use facility located in Grimshaw with the HFCRD, and the joint-use facility in Fairview would offer us two school divisions the opportunity to partner and offer the greatest number of resources to the students living in this area,” she says.
Grande Prairie and District Catholic School Board Chair Russ Snoble shared similar thoughts, saying it is important for not only students, but the community to have as many educational opportunities for children in the community as possible. He adds that the collaboration presents a unique opportunity to maintain the Catholic Division’s core values while opening up options beyond education such as greater athletics and extracurricular options as well.
“One of the advantages is the choice to have both the Catholic School Division and the Public School Division work together so that our Catholic Division students and parents can look at still maintaining the curriculum and yet join with a facility that has a larger amount of options available,” he says.
Owens says the opportunity was one that simply worked as a win-win for both divisions, as each one had needs and strengths the other could help with and utilize.
“We were willing to help out with the situation they were in with their school, and with our elementary school, it is underutilized, so by advocating together for a joint-use facility we hope that we’ll be able to build a new school that is appropriately sized for all of the students,” she says.
Officials say the joint-use facility is the first step in a multi-year process to have a new, permanent school structure in the Fairview area.
