Work underway on new joint-use Harbour Landing school

Construction is underway for Regina’s new joint-use school in Harbour Landing.

The school is being built at the corner of Gordon Road and Campbell Street and is expected to accommodate up to 500 students from the Regina Public School System and 350 from the Regina Catholic School system.

Additionally, the building will have 90 new child care spaces.

The school is being built to accommodate the “unprecedented” population growth of the Harbour Landing community, which has led to overcrowding at École Harbour Landing Elementary School and St Kateri Tekakwitha. They  share the same building.

The building has been overcrowded since it first opened, prompting boundary changes until the new school is built.

Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said the design process for the school is underway and hopes that procurement for a contractor will happen by the fall.

He said the total cost would not be known until the design was finished and a contractor secured.

The site for the joint-use school in Harbour Landing building, slated to be open in 2026. (Daniel Reech/980 CJME)

“Everybody here is talking about cooperation and collaboration, that’s certainly what we’re working on doing — having a collaborative effort in terms of making sure that all students in the Harbour Landing neighbourhood in the city of Regina, whether they go to a Catholic School or a Public School, have an opportunity best served close to where they live,” Cockrill said on Tuesday.

Cockrill said the ministry has decided to work with a provider to have standardized design for the child care spaces, hopefully to save costs for local communities and ensure child care availability can expand quickly across the province.

“I think there’s a high demand for affordable and accessible child care in the province, and we want to make sure whether you’re in Regina, or Herbert or North Battleford that you have access to child care spaces and a big part of that is making sure that regulated operators can get up and running,” he said.

Cockrill said the work being done right now is at the cost of the ministry.

The site of the new school will be at the corner of Gordon Road and Campbell Street. (Daniel Reech/980 CJME)

Sarah Cummings Truszkowski, board chair of Regina Public Schools, said the school board has a list of schools that need to be built, including two in the southeast area of the city.

“There are other schools in our city that need re-life, rebuilding and other new places where schools need to be completely renovated,” she said.

Shauna Weninger, board chair of Regina Catholic School Division agreed.

“We definitely are seeing the growth. We are very grateful to this significant investment in dollars that we have received in this last budget cycle for capital dollars for the builds of schools and as well as relocatables,” Weninger said.

“Always more that needs to be done in terms of space — we did not have approved all of the relocatables that we do require but there was a significant investment. I think the capital and building is really important and crucial but we need to not lose sight of the fact that we need to make sure that we are also getting the operational dollars required in order to make sure that we are providing the integrity of education that we have stood behind for many many years within those buildings,” Weninger said.

READ MORE:

• ‘A perfect storm’: Crowded classrooms in Harbour Landing
  ‘Generally a mess:’ Crowded classrooms in Harbour Landing
  Plan for new joint-use school in Harbour Landing takes next step
  New Harbour Landing school location decided; building to open by 2026