Two new elementary schools in Saskatoon’s Willowgrove neighbourhood sat empty and incomplete on the first day of classes Tuesday.

Willowgrove public and Holy Family Catholic schools were scheduled to open this fall, but construction delays are now pushing the schools’ opening dates back several months.

Students enrolled in the schools, which share one building, were sent to other Saskatoon schools for the first day of classes. They’ll continue attending those other schools until the Willowgrove and Holy Family building opens — a date now set for January.

“It’ very difficult to deal with and it’s frustrating,” said Ray Morrison, Saskatoon Public Schools board chair.

About 300 students enrolled in Willowgrove are attending either Dr. John G. Egnatoff or Ecole Forest Grove schools for the time being.

“It’s going to be very crowded from now until X-mas. There’s no doubt about that, but they seem to find ways to do things and continue to surprise us with the way they do things,” said Morrision.

Father Robinson and St. Volodymyr schools are welcoming over 300 students enrolled at Holy Family.

“They’ve accommodated all of our students and all of our teachers in the best way possible,” said Diane Boyko, Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools board chair. “Of course you have to manage when you have extra students… [and] all of those logistics. I think we’re managing just fine.”

The Willowgrove and Holy Family schools will operate independently within their host schools. Each will host their own assemblies and social activities, and students will be taught by the same teachers they were set to have at either Willowgrove or Holy Family.

“Our students not only have their own classrooms, they have their own teachers, they have their own officer coordinator. The caretaker they have at Holy Family is part of that community,” said Boyko.

The delayed opening comes at a time when enrollment has increased across both school divisions.

Official enrollment numbers won’t be known until the end of September, but the Catholic division said they saw an additional 275 students this year, pushing their total enrollment over 16,000 students. The public division said, at over 23,000 students, they now have the most students they’ve ever had.

The school boards will take possession of the building in November and are hoping to begin classes in the new schools in January.