Artistic rendering of the new Holy Trinity Academy k-9 Catholic school theatre that has space for 380- seats plus additional spaces for handicapped seating. Ð NEWS PHOTO OF FWBA ARCHITECTS RENDERING
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Catholic school board trustees held a productive public meeting Tuesday afternoon covering several topics including the new school, an upcoming health and wellness day and division requests for modular classrooms.
Holy Trinity Academy
Clarification on seating for the new K-9 Catholic school’s theatre was provided by superintendent Dwayne Zarichny, who explained the theatre has room for 400 traditional seats but will only be constructed with 383 traditional seats. The remaining space will instead be used for accessible seating.
“For each wheelchair seat, the space is two and a half seats per wheelchair.” said Zarichny. “So the capacity is moving, if you didn’t have wheelchair seating it would be 400 seats.”
This would provide seven accessible seats to accommodate students and visitors in wheelchairs.
Zarichny also told trustees the tender for construction will be out by the end of 2024 or early 2025, and the division is using a three-step process to make sure contractors have the capacity to complete the school’s construction.
Once a tender has been awarded, construction is expected to begin shortly afterwards, with construction scheduled to be finished in 2027.
Health and Wellness
This Friday the division will host its fourth annual Health and Wellness Day at Medicine Hat College that will include local organizations like Medicine Hat Family Services, the college’s education department, Medicine Hat Community Housing, Saamis Immigration Services and local police.
The events will feature guest speaker former Chief Cadmus Delorme, of the Cowessess First Nation in Southern Saskatchewan.
“We had the pleasure of hearing Cadmus speak last year at the ‘Bringing it Together’ conference, a really excellent message he will come and speak to our entire staff,” said deputy superintendent Nick Gale.
Students will return to their schools for more health- and wellness-related activities in the afternoon.
Modular classrooms
Two local schools have requested module educational space next year to help address student capacity issues.
St. John Paul II School and St. Patrick’s School have submitted requests for modular classrooms for the 2025-26 school year.
If the board approves the requests, trustees heard the modular spaces are ready to be installed and operational for the beginning of the school year.
Secretary treasurer Greg MacPherson told trustees that new adjustments to the approval process could leave the division responsible for any additional costs if the total costs come in above the budget request.
“Historically, Alberta Education has always held funds back to deal with cost overruns. They now want to get the money out to schools and get those things in place,” he said. “There’s a great onus on school boards to ensure that whatever they’re asking for, they better understand what the actual request is.”
