After fighting for years to get a public elementary school in their historically Catholic town, parents in Morinville are now focusing on convincing the province to build a junior and senior high school.
Morinville’s first public elementary school opened with 62 students in 2011 when one of the the town’s four Catholic schools was transferred to the public board.
Trevor Love moved his family from Morinville to St. Albert so his children could stay in the public school system from kindergarten to Grade 12. (CBC )
Now 547 children are enrolled with another 120 expected to start next year.
Once those children progress to Grade 8, they will either have to attend a Catholic school or face a long bus ride outside the town.
For some parents, sending their children to a Catholic school conflicts with their beliefs.
Sarah Hall is Métis. She says her entire family has been affected by the damaging legacy of residential schools run by the church so Catholic schools are a no-go for her kids.
“I just feel strongly that my children should not be forced to go to a Catholic school system when we’re in a huge community like it is now.”
Other parents simply want their children to attend a school without religious affiliations. Trevor Love moved from Morinville to St. Albert last year so his children can attend a public school from kindergarten to Grade 12.
“We’re not religious so… they’re getting messages from us at home and conflicting messages from their school,” he said.
Even the Catholic school isn’t an option. Amber Ziemmer learned that lesson when she tried to get her son into Grade 8.
“The secretary told me that if he was Catholic that they would make room for him in their school, but since he wasn’t, that they couldn’t take him,” she said.
Alberta Premier Jim Prentice recently announced 55 new schools and 20 modernizations of existing buildings across the province.
Morinville is getting a school — but not the public junior and high school parents are asking for. Instead, the province is building another Catholic elementary school.
Kathleen Range, press secretary for Education minster Gordon Dirks, says the application from the Sturgeon Public School Division is under review. (CBC )
Kathleen Range, press secretary for newly-appointed education minister Gordon Dirks, said that the department is reviewing the application from the Sturgeon Public School Division.
She could not say how quickly the project could be approved.
Dirks met with the chairman of the Sturgeon School Public Division on Thursday. Range would not say what the two men discussed. The chairman could not be reached by CBC News.
Parents are now circulating a petition and have launched a letter-writing campaign in hopes of getting Dirks’ attention.
In the meantime, the public elementary school will add Grade 8 next year. But parents say the building doesn’t work for older students by not having the lab space needed for their courses
Trevor Love, the parent who moved his family to St. Albert, says the building isn’t even sized correctly for teenagers.
“Teeny tiny little toilets and teeny tiny little water fountains and it’s not meant for kids in junior high and high school,” he said.
The population of Morinville is now about 9,500, a 40 per cent increase over the past eight years.
