Mill Woods schools facing enrolment demand from outlying neighbourhoods

Peter Skinner wanted his daughter Chelsea to be skilled in coding and science.

When he heard about a special program that taught those skills and more was offered atSt. Richard School in Mill Woods, he moved his daughter from her mother's home in the west end to the southeast.

He said the GREEN Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Academy will give his daughter a leg up when she goes tojunior high and high school.

"Like football, you don't start a guy when he's 16 and hope he's going to make it to the NFL. You start when he's five," Skinner said.

"It's going to give her a fast-track."

Different programs

The GREEN STEM program is one of several programs at Mill Woods schools drawing in students from other parts of the city, according to school officials.

At Edmonton Public's Meyonohk School, more than half of the elementary students are part of a Chinese (Mandarin) Bilingual program. Thosein the program spend half of the day learning in Mandarin and the other half of the day in English.

'You can see how proud they are'

6 years ago

Duration 1:18

Grade 4 students learn Mandarin in Meyonohk School's bilingual program.

Grade 4 teacher Max Liu said students come from across the city to take part in the bilingual program.

"Students know today that learning a second or third language is very beneficial to them," he said.

The demand for the program is year-round, said officials. The school's principal, Connie Spasiuk, said she has already received several calls from parents wanting to register their child in the programfor the next school year.

"There are always parents wanting to register," she said.

Increasing demand

School board officials said manyschools in Mill Woods are seeing growing classroom sizes as a result of many students coming from outlying neighbourhoods.

Lorne Parker, assistant superintendent of infrastructure with Edmonton Public Schools, said that isa problem for many of the older schools, some of which are running out of space.

He also said many schools in Mill Woods are around 40 years old and will soon also need major upgrades tokeep up with growing classroom sizes.

"In the Mill Woods area itself, we're seeing an increase in our student demographics because we have areas around Mill Woods growing at an unprecedented rate," Parker said.

"The southeast is the fastest growing area in the city. We don't have enough schools in those areas to accommodate all the students so they're being transported into the Mill Woods area."

• Overcrowded classrooms worry Alberta teachers

Neither Edmonton Public Schools or Edmonton Catholic Schools provided statistics as to how many students outside of Mill Woods bus to Mill Woods schools.

But Parker said public junior high and high schools in Mill Woods are seeing the highest demand in enrolment.

The 2003 Alberta's Commission on Learning report recommended 27 students per class for Grades 10 through 12.

At J. Percy Page School in Mill Woods, Grade 10 to 12 class sizes averaged 28.2 students in 2017-18, according toonline statistics.

"J. Percy Page is close to very quickly being out of space," said Parker.

"In order to address that pressure, we desperately need to see a high school built in the Meadows area. If that doesn't happen, we're going to see continued pressure in Mill Woods and in other high schools."

• New high school tops list of priorities for Edmonton Public Schools

A high school for The Meadows was the top priority for Edmonton Public Schools as part of its most recent capital plan, approved in March.

The southeast high school would cost about $79 million, with an initial student capacity of 1,800.