'A bit of a slog': New public school in Saskatoon's core is years behind schedule

The development of a new public elementary school designed to amalgamate three others in Saskatoon’s core neighbourhoods is years behind schedule.

When the Princess Alexandra School on Avenue H was torn down at the end of the 2022 school year, officials hoped to open a new facility in its place by 2025 — one that would serve the communities of Riversdale, Pleasant Hill and King George.

Today, the lot still sits untouched.

The superintendent of facilities for Saskatoon Public Schools, Stan Laba, says ground-breaking was expected to have happened already, but various delays pushed the project back.

“It has been a bit of a slog, given the, the scope and the partners and, and the site selection and all that kind of front end stuff that we had to work through,” Laba told CTV News.

Anticipated capital partners pulled out, leaving the public school board as the sole capital investor.

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That means the new project will look different than originally planned, eliminating joint use community elements to the school like a recreation facility. The plan at the outset was to house 600 students in the new facility.

“So we're building a school for 350 to 400 students, and we can fit that within the confines of the pre-existing, site, which is just under three acres,” Laba says.

The new development will be the fourth school on that site. The first was built in 1907, and Princess Alexandra School was built in 1962.

One major reason for the delay was that planners were counting on purchasing the land the City Center Church sits on, just south of the school grounds, but the church rejected their pitch.

“We were hoping we could entice them with an offer, market value, even significantly better than market value, but that was not acceptable to City Center Church,” Laba said.

Not having the added land means a smaller school with fewer students and the need to maximize space in the planned three-storey building. There were other locations considered over the past few years, including utilizing the school board maintenance yard, which borders the school yard to the north.

Considering the pros and cons, they decided to go with Plan B — downsize.

The Minister of Education, Jeremy Cockrill hopes the project can move forward now that the land decisions have been settled.

“We've been working through that with, the school divisions and work through the, into the design process right now and are hoping to break ground in 2025,” Cockrill said.

Even though the design will be scaled back from the original released two years ago, it will still incorporate unique Indigenous concepts as well as lunch programs for students and community members.

Currently most students from Princess Alexandra and Pleasant Hill, which closed in 2022, are housed at King George School, where the current enrollment is a substantial — 280 students.

That building is expected to close at the end of the 2027 school year, which will make way for the new school on Avenue H.