St. Francis Xavier Elementary School (Photo Courtesy Bob Schneider)

By Gates Guarin

Dedicated consultation will still occur

Catholic school board capital plan may see three schools amalgamated

May 11, 2022 | 4:23 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education approved its three-year capital plan last night, with board trustees voting 4-1 in favour.

The plan includes the potential of a new school, which would be constructed in Crescent Heights on the grounds where St. Francis Xavier school currently resides. The idea of a new build came from years of work by the school board trustees on a large scale theatre complex with fiscal literacy space.

Dr. Dwayne Zarichny, superintendent of the board, says after talks with the provincial government, there were specific needs that would have to be added.

“The suggestion was made that if we were interested in building that facility, it would have to include an educational component to it – some type of school building,” Zarichny says. “From that, the suggestion was made that we take a look at our capital plan, and which schools would be in need of the most work, and then look at possibilities or explore possibilities that would work well in this type of a project.”

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St. Michael’s Elementary, St. Mary’s Junior High and St. Francis Xavier Elementary are the three schools which would be welcomed under the proposed school.

While all three schools would be combined, the plan is not to have these students all under one roof.

“The ask right now is to have those schools amalgamated, however they would not be one large school,” Zarichny says. “They would be two separate areas that would house the students. So we would have one elementary component and a middle school component.”

Plans are not set in stone, as the capital plan submitted will now go to the education ministry to see if there is any support at the provincial level.

Zarichny says because this plan is only an initial ask, there will be dedicated consultation done by the board.

“As part of that discussion, they made a commitment to engage with all of our stakeholders so staff, parents, students and community groups as well,” Zarichny says. “Hopefully by the end of the process we can get a great idea of how everyone’s feeling about it and the ideas that they have for it.”