NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
It was a busy morning outside Mother Teresa school as kids return to the classroom for the 2023-24 school year.
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
There are new things happening within the Medicine Hat Catholic School Division.
“One of the biggest ones is the new school build. We had our kick-off meeting in August to get the process started,” said superintendent Dr. Dwayne Zarichny. “I think we have a nice team put together that’s going to be designing the building.”
He added it’s important for MHCBE that the school be fully inclusive, not only inside, but outside as well.
“It is a priority for us and is fundamental to that building design so every student who is in that building can participate fully in every aspect of that design.”
The design process will take place over the next five months. In the next few weeks group meetings with staff, trustees and parent councils will begin to happen.
Following the design, the drawings will be submitted back to the government for a costing-out process and then become part of the next budget and hopefully approved.
The design, tendering process and budget will take approximately 15 months. Building the new facility should take about another 22 months and MHCBE is looking at September 2026 for the new school opening date.
One aspect of the new building is the 400-seat theatre and the government is also funding that portion of the project.
“As a school division we feel very fortunate,” stated Zarichny.
MHCBE will be continuing its fundraising efforts toward the new theatre and playground to have the best facilities possible for students.
“We want the entire playground to be accessible to students. It’s not uncommon to have a piece of equipment that is accessible, but we want, for the most part, the playground accessible so that all kids, at recess, can go out and play.”
The school will have capacity for 950 K-9 students. The theatre will likely be attached to the new build as opposed to an existing building, but there will be a walkway or some type of connector so all Catholic students from K-12 in that area have access to the theatre.
MHCBE hired 18 new teachers for the upcoming school year but needed to add three more since holding a new teacher orientation.
“Our numbers are growing every day and we are so excited,” said Zarichny. “During the course of the last four years, we are up nearly 400 students. In some schools we are having to split classes at the last minute because the registrations just keep coming in. We are nearing 3,000 students in our jurisdiction. Not only does it make us very happy our numbers are coming up like that, but we are thankful that parents are choosing our schools for their children.”
Small schools like St. Francis have seen an exponential growth in enrolment.
“All our schools are up in enrolment. At JPII (Ecole St. Jean Paul II School) we’ve had to add portables and we are still out of room. We could add more portables tomorrow and probably not have a problem filling them up,” he said.
Two portables were added over the summer at JPII. The finishing touches are currently being done and they should be ready by early September.
The division had experience several years of declining enrolment. “Year over year we were getting smaller and looking at some of our smaller schools and worrying about them,” he said. “Now, it’s not an issue for any building. The new building will come in handy because our enrolments are going to demand more space. For some of our smaller schools, we are almost at a point where we are going to run out of room. It’s a good problem to have, the timing of the new school is very fortunate for us.”
Overall, implementation of the new curriculum went well last year and will continue this year across the division.
“We provided PD opportunities for staff throughout the year and are continuing that this year to provide support. With that approach last year, we have a better idea of the resources we need and the government has provided the budget to purchase those resources.
“Whenever a new curriculum is brought out, it’s lots of work and so it takes effort on staff to be ready, but I think from our perspective, we are off to the races.”
