The Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools board has approved a capital plan with some big changes on the horizon. They want to build a new French Immersion Centre in O’Brien Lake West, with room for 750 students at first, to grow to 950.
Students and staff at St. Patrick’s School will be moving to École St. Gerard as a way to deal with with structural and air quality issues in the building. The modular classrooms from both facilities would be moved elsewhere, while the school board looks at whether it makes financial sense to modernize St. Pat’s. A lot of expensive work would be needed and the school board believes building new would be a smarter move.
If it’s worth it, the plan would instead be to build a smaller K-8 school for 700 students in west Grande Prairie, which could use a similar design as the new Royal Oaks school. The hope is to start construction in spring 2016 and open in fall 2017.
The students ousted from École St. Gerard would be moved to the new school. Several other schools are already at capacity, including Mother Teresa and Holy Cross.