The Grande Prairie Public School Division has announced a significant funding dump from the Government of Alberta to facilitate the design phase of a “major addition” to Grande Prairie Composite Highschool.
The funding comes as part of the Province’s Accelerated School Construction Program, which officials say allows school projects to receive funding and move forward, even outside of their regular budget cycle, saving time and resources while opening up much-needed classroom space.
Capacity pressures
A lack of space has continued to pose issues for Grande Prairie’s school divisions, with schools operating at 100 per cent, and in some cases, even beyond capacity. Grande Prairie MLA Nolan Dyck says the expansion has always been a part of the plans at the Comp, just coming sooner than later due to capacity pressures.
“When we planned and built the composite high school, it wasn’t planning to hit capacity for another five to seven years,” he says. “Because of Grande Prairie’s growth, we’re seeing more people entering the public system- which is the better problem to have.”
Thanks to the funding bump, the GPPSD will now begin the design process for the expansion, including 18 new classrooms, space for an additional 450 students, with the whole addition spanning around 21K square feet.
Timeline
The design portion of the project is expected to take around one year; however, the division maintains they aim to fast-track timelines so construction can begin “as soon as” approvals are in place.
