By Charles Lefebvre

Catholic Board still working to finalize plans for École St. Thomas d’Aquin

Jan 14, 2019 | 1:58 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Seven months after it closed its doors for good, the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education is working to determine the next step for École St. Thomas d’Aquin.

The kindergarten to Grade 6 school closed its doors in June 2018. The Catholic Board voted earlier in the year to close the school due to a lack of enrolment in the French immersion program and the school needing approximately $1.5 million in repairs. The majority of students now attend École Saint John Paul II School.

Since the school closed, it has sat vacant. Catholic Board chair Dick Mastel says there are strict rules under the province’s School Act to determine what happens to a school when it’s no longer being used by a school division.

“The first thing that has to happen is that the board has to examine whether or not that property is of any use to us in the future,” he said.

If the board determines that the property is surplus to its needs, they need to offer the property for other school districts. Mastel says there has been some preliminary discussions with another school district, but nothing concrete has been decided.

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“If there aren’t any schools or school districts that are wanting to use the property, the next thing that happens is that it’s open to government agencies, Alberta Health Care, Social Services, organizations of that kind,” he said. “If there is nobody that comes forward in those agencies, then it can go up for public sale.”

All decisions for a school property need to be approved by the Education Minister before they can take effect.

École St. Thomas d’Aquin is the second vacant property the Catholic school board needs to deal with. The board owned the property that CAPE School was operating out of before it moved to its current location.

Mastel says discussions about both schools will take place over the next several months.