Location for new Harbour Landing Elementary School confirmed

A location for the site of the new joint-use Harbour Landing Elementary School has been confirmed.

The school will be located on the corner of Gordon Road and Campbell Street in south Regina, according to a release from the province.

The school will be able to accommodate about 850 students, will include a 90-space child care centre, and a community space with a kitchen area which can be used by both schools and the community.

“Once we identified a school was a priority in 2020, we turned our attention to the issue of where to build the school,” said Minister of Education Dustin Duncan at a press conference Thursday.

The project was delayed while the City of Regina searched for the 11 acres of land necessary to build a new joint-use facility.

“We didn’t have efficient land for a joint-use school,” said Mayor Sandra Masters. “The work that’s been undertaken the past 20 months securing the site and working with both the provincial government and the school boards." 

The provincial government will fully fund the purchase of the land and the building of the school.

Construction is expected to start later this year, with Harbour Landing West opening in fall 2026. Design is still underway.

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HARBOUR LANDING CAPACITY

The new school will be able to accommodate about 850 students, will include a 90-space child care centre, and a community space with a kitchen area which can be used by both schools and the community.

The announcement was welcomed by the Regina Public School Board who said Harbour Landing School has been at capacity, since it opened in 2017. Earlier this month, they announced a temporary boundary change that will move over 200 students to Ethel Milliken School for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year.

“[We] have had to make some difficult decisions,” said chair Tara Molson. “Over the past few weeks, we’ve held community consultations to hear from families what their needs are.”

Molson added the 850 proposed capacity may not be enough.

“Our projections tell us when that school opens, it will be full,” she said. “We’ll still continue to advocate with the ministry on some square footage changes.”

Catholic school St. Kateri Tekakwitha School shares a building with Harbour Landing School. Board chair Shauna Weninger told reporters Thursday, some changes will be made to accommodate class sizes in that school as well.

“We will be taking some non-classroom space and reconfiguring it to make space for classrooms next year,” she explained. “We won’t be doing any boundary adjustments heading into the 2023-24 school year.”

Weninger said the school division will re-assess its situation based on enrollment next year. She added keeping classroom size down is essential to student success.

“What we need is issues around inflation and enrollment pressures to be acknowledged so we’re able to move forward in a way that continues the integrity of education we have today,” said Weninger.

Mayor Masters has seen the difficulty educators have in constrained space, but she saw the growing need for new schools as a good thing for the city.

“Growth when we have a bunch of young people in our city is a wonderful thing for the future of our city,” Masters said.