‘Can’t be saved:’ Holy Rosary School to close permanently

Just a little over a year after the community rallied to keep the school open, the Regina Catholic School Division is telling families that Holy Rosary Community School will have to close soon.

In 2020, the division began a review of the school but in 2021 – after pressure from the community – the division decided to keep the school open.

However, just a few months later when the school was putting up some signage on the exterior of the building for a multilingual, multicultural space, workers found some “concerning” damage to the brickwork, according to Twylla West, communications and media co-ordinator for the Regina Catholic School Division.

The division hired structural engineers to go in and see what was going on, and West said recently a report came back saying the engineers found irreparable damage to the school’s foundation.

“The foundation just can’t be saved at this point. We did ask, ‘How much money do you need to fix it?’ And there isn’t an amount of money that can fix it; it would be demolition and rebuild,” explained West.

The decision has put in a request for money to rebuild the school but it couldn’t be done in the timeline needed.

The division was given three years for the school, but it’s expecting to close it by the end of the 2023-24 school year at the latest.

“We know that that three-year window comes with a plus-minus and we’re being conservative to ensure safety,” said West.

The division has been doing mitigation work on the school to keep it safe for the time being and there will be ongoing work and inspections done.

Holy Rosary is the oldest school in the Catholic division at 109 years. There are currently 130 students and 12 staff.

West said the students and staff will have to move to different schools when Holy Rosary closes – it will be the choice of the families and staff where they go.

The logical choice to the division would be Sacred Heart Community School in the North Central neighbourhood, but West said it will be up to the parents. She said there is enough space at Sacred Heart to accommodate the Holy Rosary students.

There are still some decision to be made but the division is waiting until after a meeting with families on Thursday evening to hear their thoughts and preferences.

“The board has not made any decisions and our administration has not made any decisions in terms of what will happen next beyond we know that there’s this three-year window,” said West.

“We know that the building is safe for now and we’re maintaining that and continuing to examine that to ensure that that stays the case, and we’ll deal with everything else next. First, it’s students.”

There are other schools in the division that are nearing the same age, but West said they’re already being discussed for rebuilds. There is a rebuild happening at St. Pius and Argyle schools. And West said St. Michael and St. Peter, along with two public elementary schools, are part of a rebuild at the current Imperial School site.