(File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Jaryn Vecchio

New School

New P.A. francophone school looking at being built near Alfred Jenkins Field House

Mar 23, 2023 | 1:00 PM

To say the francophone community in Prince Albert is excited about the community getting a new K-12 school would be an understatement.

The province announced on Wednesday that funding will be included in the 2023/24 budget to help start the process of creating the new building which will officially replace École Valois.

They didn’t specify exactly how much money the project is getting, only stating they’ve set aside $4.4 million to help create five different schools in the province.

Josée Bourgoin, the interim president of the Sociéte canadienne-française de Prince Albert (SCFPA), told paNOW this has been a long time coming.

“We’ve been waiting for several years, so it was a very joyful moment.”

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Calls for a new school go as far back as 2008 when École Valois had to start using their community spaces, where groups like the SCFPA would work out of, for new classrooms due to an increase in students.

Bourgoin explained École Valois is much smaller when compared to English-speaking K-12 schools across the province. The school doesn’t have any science labs, and those taking woodshop have to work on their projects in the building’s hallways.

These challenges have made it tough for École Valois to keep older students.

“They were all leaving the school system to go into French immersion or other schools,” said Bourgoin. “The high school students can’t even go outside for recreation or for a breath of fresh air because the school isn’t even big enough.”

There’s no timeline on when the school will be operational, though the Conseil des écoles fransaskoises (CÉF) and the French-Canadian Society of Prince Albert hoping for 2025.

Meanwhile, the SCFPA, CÉF, and the city of Prince Albert are currently in discussions on where the school will be located.

Bourgoin noted there has been some interest in buying land, with the funds from the province, around the Alfred Jenkins Field House. If this happens, Bourgoin sees the rest of the funding being used on studies and designs.

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow