Students in the St. Patrick Catholic School area will now attend Mother Teresa. The Grande Prairie & District Catholic Schools Board has decided to move the school’s boundary for at least the 2020-2021 school year as a way to reduce the time and cost of transportation.
“What the board has decided to do is to move those students to the Mother Teresa Boundary because it is easier to transport the students and the ride time is reduced,” explains Superintendent Karl Germann. “It is probably a savings of a quarter-million dollars a year.”
St. Patrick School was closed three years ago due to a mould issue and is now slated for a replacement. At the time, 230 Pre-K to Grade 7 students were moved to Holy Cross and École St. Gérard, as Mother Teresa being at full capacity and St. Kateri was under construction.
Germann also believes the transfer of students to Mother Teresa makes sense due to most being familiar with the area.
“Generally, that’s the students that they interact with. Those neighbourhoods are close together, and they’re going to St. Joesphs for high school anyways. There are around a 100 students that are going to be impacted and shifted to Mother Teresa for the next couple of years.”
Germann says the province has agreed to fund the replacement and is in talks about a budget for construction. He adds being fiscally responsible has been a moving target due in large part by the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is no final decision on what actually happens to the St. Patrick school; they’re going to rebuild it. The board has yet to decide who will be going into that school.”
The previous plan to just modernize the school was nixed by the province in February as its tenders were over budget. No timeline has been released as to when construction could potentially begin on its replacement.