Doer government rejects building new school By Nick Martin
The Doer government has formally rejected building a long-demanded new high school in the Lindenwoods and Whyte Ridge neighbourhoods of Pembina Trails School Division. That’s the bottom line — but word has also emerged that the government quietly tucked away one line in extensive legislation last year that requires the PSFB to look beyond division boundaries before spending big bucks on capital projects. And that in turn led John Suszko, the PSFB’s consultant, to recommend considering shipping kids from Whyte Ridge and Lindenwoods to the abandoned Silver Heights Collegiate building in St. James. “We’re just appalled,” said Sandie Matheson of the New High School Lobby Group. “It’s become blatant rejection of these communities — our communities are just fed up.” Pembina Trails superintendent Lawrence Lussier said trustees are filing an appeal with the board of three deputy ministers that governs the PSFB. The division disputes the PSFB’s enrolment projections. “They are different from what we project,” Lussier said. “Considering placing students from our division in another school division, it doesn’t make any sense,” politically or financially, Lussier said. Rick Dedi, executive director of the public schools finance board (PSFB), delivered the bad news to the division in a Nov. 7 letter. “We have reviewed our consultant report, and our own demographic information, and have concluded that current and projected enrolments in your division do not support the immediate need for a new high school in southwest Winnipeg,” Dedi told the division. But Dedi moved quickly to assure Pembina Trails that the province wants to identify a high school site in the massive Waverley West development, and said that moving kids to the empty Silver Heights building is a definite no-go. “The renovation of Silver Heights, you might as well build a new school,” because of the repair costs involved, Dedi said. “We have no plans to revive it. “We have no plans to send students across boundaries. That’s a long-term eventuality in the act,” Dedi said. Dedi said that Pembina Trails will need seven or eight new classrooms in its existing high schools over the next three years, to handle 200-plus high school students coming out of Waverley West.“We need to identify a site there” for a high school in Waverley West, Dedi said. “They’re looking at a location in what will be the town centre of Waverley West,” Lussier said. “There’s talk of recreation facilities, to make a bigger complex,” he said. Pembina Trails wants a new high school between Winnipeg Technical College and Kenaston, south of Scurfield Boulevard. But, said Dedi, “There’s a huge, huge retention pond there that the city would be loathe to part with.” Lussier said it was also a surprise to have the consultant suggest converting Royal School to a high school for French immersion students. Both Charleswood and Westdale junior highs have been high schools decades ago, so why would the PSFB ignore them, asked Lussier? Meanwhile, Matheson said parent activists will meet Thursday to plan a community forum, and want to meet with Premier Gary Doer and Education Minister Peter Bjornson to push their case. Dedi said the province has to put its scarce dollars in areas where there is overall growth, and the Winkler area is a far higher priority than southwest Winnipeg. nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca ________________________________________ What’s the issue? Pembina Trails School Division has been asking the province for several years to build a new southwest high school to serve Lindenwoods, Whyte Ridge and Linden Ridge. The division’s preferred spot is on the southeast corner of Kenaston and Scurfield boulevards, next to Winnipeg Technical College. What just happened? Three things have just become public — a letter to the division from the public schools finance board (PSFB), a consultant’s report to the PSFB, and word of a key provincial policy tucked quietly into lengthy legislation passed 17 months ago. What’s the bottom line? The PSFB says enrolment projections do not justify building a new high school in the immediate future. Seven or eight additional classrooms in the existing high schools will handle any foreseeable growth. The PSFB will identify a site for a high school in the Waverley West development, but is not speculating when it could be built. What’s all this stuff about sending kids to Silver Heights and Grant Park? The consultant said that if Pembina Trails needs high school space, it should look at the now-closed Silver Heights Collegiate building, which is in St. James-Assiniboia School Division, and which needs millions of dollars in renovations. The consultant also said that Pembina Trails should consider sending students from its southwest neighbourhoods to Grant Park High School, which is in Winnipeg School Division, and is operating at or near capacity. Further, said the consultant, consider converting Winnipeg Technical College into a high school, or converting the division’s Royal School in Charleswood into a high school. Why would the consultant come up with such unusual solutions? Because of one line buried deep in the amendments to the PSFB Act passed in June of 2006. It says that the PSFB must look across school division boundaries before making major capital investments. So before the province builds a new high school in Waverley West, or anywhere else in Pembina Trails, it must look to the neighbours. Could the southwest students be accommodated in Grant Park, the empty Silver Heights building, St. James Collegiate or Westwood Collegiate in St. James-Assiniboia, St. Norbert Collegiate in Seine River School Division, or even Sanford Collegiate in Red River Valley School Division?
