'Overdue': Locations for new elementary, high schools in Regina announced as school divisions wrestle with increasing enrollment

The provincial government and City of Regina announced the locations for future joint use elementary and high schools in the city’s east end on Monday.

Both schools will be located in The Towns neighbourhood , near Costco, and combined will be able to accommodate 3,400 students.

“We need these schools as soon as possible,” Minister of Education Jeremy Cockrill told reporters following the announcement. “There's some major growth happening in our two major cities, which is excellent.”

The provincial government announced its intention to build the schools in the 2024 budget last March.

The joint use elementary school will hold up to 1,400 students, 800 for the public school and 600 for the Catholic.

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The school builds will also provide 180 childcare spaces with the allocation of spaces between the elementary and high schools still being determined.

Both Regina Public (RPSD) and Catholic School (RCSD) Boards welcomed the investment but said they’ve been calling for the new schools for more than a decade.

“It’s exactly what Regina needs,” Public School Board Chair Sarah Cummings Truszkowski said. “We’ve been advocating for this for a long time.”

Catholic School Board Chair Shauna Weninger called the announcement “overdue.”

“Like Harbour Landing, this location is very unique,” she added. “[The city] has been building higher density communities than we’re used to.”

The location’s announcement comes as both divisions wrestle with increasing enrolment.

RPSD will not have a final tally on students enrolled for the school year until the end of September but says they have over 26,000 students in their 57 schools across the city.

That is over 800 more than in 2023-24.

Student Enrollment

As for RCSD, there are 13,682 students from pre-K to Grade 12 this year. 492 more students than last year.

“We’ve been dealing with extreme challenges in regard to population, especially in [southeast Regina],” Weninger explained.

“Classrooms have high numbers of students and high [pupil to teacher] ratios.,” Cummings Truszkowski said. “[The new schools] are going to be very full immediately after opening.”

Student Enrollment

NDP Leader Carla Beck highlighted growing classroom complexity concerns.

“It’s not sustainable to continue to pile more and more pressure on teachers,” she said. “It’s about making sure [the government] is focused on delivering the best education for kids.”

Cockrill said the province is working towards bettering education by building more schools as Saskatchewan’s population grows.

“We need buildings to accommodate these students and staff,” he said. “This really highlights the growth of the province and of Regina.”

In August, work also began for a new joint use elementary school and daycare in Regina’s Harbour Landing neighbourhood.

That school’s location was announced in March 2023.

Cockrill added there is no timeline for when shovels will break ground on these newly announced schools in The Towns.

Those details are expected to be finalized once designs and procurement is completed.