New St Adolphe K to 8 school tops SRSD capital project list

A new St Adolphe school and more classrooms at three existing schools topped Seine River School Division’s five-year capital plan as the division’s growing student population continues to push existing schools to capacity.

The school division released the request list sent for provincial approval during its April 28 school board meeting. A new 350-student kindergarten to Grade 8 French immersion school in St Adolphe was highlighted as the most urgent need, with the division asking for project approval by the 2027/2028 school year.

Superintendent Colin Campbell told The Carillon the existing St Adolphe school, which offers both English and French immersion education, is at capacity and class sizes will increase if there’s no new space. The school has 339 students as of May 5, according to the division’s data. Student enrolment across the division has grown by 800 students from 2020 to 2025, with 140 students joining as of November.

“I think with the large amount of new homes that are being built in that area, it’s only a matter of time that we are beyond capacity in that school, and then it becomes a learning detriment for those students, where learning in a class of 20 students is significantly different than if there’s 30 students in a classroom,” he said.

While the existing school is at capacity, measures such as converting libraries into classrooms aren’t being considered yet, Campbell said. The division previously completed renovations at Arborgate School in La Broquerie and at Ste Anne High School to create two classrooms from each school’s library for the current school year.

“When you get to capacity, that’s where you start to have to literally chip away at finding space to make sure that classrooms size and student population in each class is kept at a minimum,” Campbell said. “We obviously don’t want to go there, and we don’t think it’s necessary if we can get a new school built.”

The division has sought provincial approval for the project for at least three years, said chairperson Christine Roskos. She said the area’s increased development was correlated to the Red River dike near St Adolphe being raised in 2024, giving more homes the “green light.”

“They (developers) started to build homes, and we know that’s going to put pressure on an already full school,” Roskos said.

The province has approved a new Ste Anne High School which is slated to begin construction in 2027 and open in 2028.

Additional classrooms were also included in the capital project list. The division asked for a six-classroom addition and new theatre at St Norbert Collegiate, a four-classroom addition at Arborgate School and a four-classroom addition at La Salle School, which ranked the lowest priority.

The province will give the division three portable classrooms for September, two in Ste Anne and one in St Norbert, despite the division asking for eight.

Roskos said the division would’ve liked more but understood that there were limitations on how many would be provincially available and ready in time for the next school year.

“We feel that some of the advocacy that we’ve done has helped us gain those three, and we will continue to advocate for more to continue to meet the needs that we have,” she said.

The portable classrooms are a “last ditch option” when managing growing class sizes, and building additions are the safer option when more permanent classrooms are needed, said Campbell.

Other projects included in the plan were renovations to the Ste Anne Complex in preparation for the new high school and science lab renewal and new location for the wood shop at Lorette Collegiate.