Work starts on second Sage Creek school

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This article was published 27/07/2023 (869 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sage Creek is one step closer to getting a second elementary school — a long-awaited development for students who have long had to set their alarms extra early and be bussed in and out of their community to attend class.

A new construction project is getting underway on a muddy lot south of a roundabout at Warde Avenue and Des Hivernants Boulevard this summer.

“We can’t wait until it opens. It’ll be a big day,” Frank Capasso, president of the Sage Creek Residents’ Association, said. “A lot of residents complain because we have our own community, and we can’t have kids go to school in our own community.”

Equipped with hard hats and golden shovels in hand, elected officials, community members and construction workers gathered Thursday to celebrate the groundbreaking of the kindergarten-to-Grade 8 building that will serve families in Sage Creek and Bonavista.

The school is expected to open and start offering single-track immersion in September 2025. Once it is up and running, the community’s existing elementary school, École Sage Creek School, will drop its French title and programming.

Government Services Minister James Teitsma said the state-of-the-art building will be one of the largest in the province, with capacity for 900 students and a child-care centre on site.

“We want to ensure that our children receive high-quality education and that they receive that in high-quality schools, and that’s what we’re committed to building,” Teitsma said, flanked by Education Minister Wayne Ewasko and Andrew Smith, the Tory MLA for Lagimodiere.

Preliminary estimates suggest the province will pay about $47 million for the new school and $6 million for the land at 355 Des Hivernants.

Teitsma touted the PCs’ commitment to building more schools than originally promised in 2019 — now 23 by 2027, up from 20 by 2029 — and compressed construction timelines, because of significant population growth in areas such as Sage Creek.

The “23 new school guarantee” includes an updated pledge to build more than 1,700 infant and preschool child-care spaces and 654 spots for school-aged youth across these facilities.

Major additions to existing schools are expected to add another 400 daycare spots and spaces for before and after-school care, the province announced Thursday.

Chipalo Simunyola, a school trustee who lives in Sage Creek, acknowledged the lengthy period during which he and his neighbours have been making do with a single school and without adequate childcare availability.

“As we continue to go through the process of this place being built, we do ask for more patience from you — but this is a win,” Simunyola said during the morning news conference.

École Sage Creek School was already over capacity when it opened in the Louis Riel School Division at the start of the 2017-18 academic year.

It was built for 600 children. A total of 625 were registered in its inaugural fall.

Within two years, LRSD administration — which has been advocating for a second school since 2013 — turned the initial K-8 school into a K-6 building and began rerouting middle schoolers elsewhere in the division.

There were 747 students enrolled in the K-6 school, as of Sept. 29.

Capasso said the community continues to grow because of its calming atmosphere, hiking trails and charming “downtown” area.

“It’s a small town. It’s a family feel. You walk down the street, and everybody says, ‘Hi, how’re you doing?’ and you don’t even know who they are. That’s what makes everybody want to live here,” he said.

Manitoba’s latest attendance data show Pembina Trails’ École South Pointe School has the largest student population — 1,038 attendees — of all elementary buildings in the province.

Winnipeg’s École Waterford Springs School and Bernie Wolfe School in River East Transcona are next in line, with upwards of 800 attendees each.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca