Lethbridge School Division office. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

City of Lethbridge lends support to second new west side elementary school

Sep 26, 2019 | 9:00 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge’s four west side elementary schools are over capacity and proposals are in place to build another two.

Each would have the capacity for another 600 students and are expected to cost just over $17-million individually.

Gary Station Elementary School is a bit farther along as it does have a location set in the Gary Station neighbourhood on the northern end of the west side.

A currently-unnamed school, however, is likely still several years away from happening.

The City of Lethbridge sent a letter of support for it to the Lethbridge School Division last week.

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“The City will commit to work with the land developers to ensure that a serviced lot with proper zoning will be available to meet the construction timelines for the new school site,” reads a section of the letter.

A site or tentative construction date has yet to be selected, as it is currently awaiting the thumbs-up from the Government of Alberta.

Lethbridge School Division Communications Officer Garrett Simmons says all four current elementary schools on the west side have “core utilization rates” of 163-187%.

School Board Chair Clark Bosch explains what that means.

“You build a school and it allows for so many students, but then when you keep adding portables onto a school, the core of that school gets overwhelmed with students, so we are operating at capacity at our west side schools. We’re hoping that we get some new relief with a west side elementary school.”

Between the four existing elementary schools on the west side, there are 54 portable classroom additions.

The new Coalbanks Elementary that just opened three years ago on the south side is already getting a portable of its own.

The District’s 2018/19 to 2020/21 Capital Plan projects that student enrolment in west Lethbridge elementary school is expected to grow by 516 over the next decade from 2254 in 2018 to 2770.

For all K-12 programs, there is estimated to be more than 1,000 additional students in the next 10 years.