Anglophone East superintendent pleased 2 of 9 new schools it sought are approved

The superintendent of the Anglophone East School District is happytwo new schools will be built in the Moncton region, but he says more are needed to keep up with enrolment.

"Excitement, relief, euphoria," Randolph MacLean said in an interview Wednesday."Uncertainty, because now the real work begins."

MacLean was reacting to the provincial capital budget released Tuesday which included$10.2 million to start work on four schools in Moncton, Fredericton, Dieppe and Salisbury.

The schools in Dieppe and Salisbury are for Anglophone East, while the school in Moncton is an expansion ofFrancophone South's cole Saint-Henri.

The new schools are only expected to open in about five years.

MacLean said earlier this year that Anglophone East would need nine more schools to address "exponential" enrolment growth.

"Is it enough? Of the nine we requested [it]is two of the nine," MacLean said Wednesday, saying more schools will likely be requested again in the spring.

"We will still see enrolment pressures in the north, enrolment pressures in the centre part of the city, enrolment pressures in other areas that we will still require modular classrooms," MacLean said.

A new middle school set to open in Moncton's west end will ease some of the pressure as will a new Shediac Cape K-12 school in about four years, MacLean said.

The district had 19,317 students as of last week,up from16,776 in September 2021. It expects enrolment to top22,000 students within four years.That's led to using non-teaching spaces like staff rooms and libraries as classrooms.

The district added 17 more portable classrooms to the 65 it already had at various overcrowded schools.

MacLean said they have already asked for 27 more for next fall.

Michel Ct, chair of theFrancophone South district education council, struck a more critical tone Tuesday after the capital budget was announced.

Ct told Radio-Canada thatFrench-speaking communities were ignored and that without more spending there would be greater reliance on portable classrooms.

"We have accumulated a delay in terms of infrastructure for several years, and we are just continuing this delay, and we will arrive at a certain point where things will no longer be sustainable,"Ctsaid.

Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold welcomed the spending announced by the province Tuesday.

"I've certainly heard from many citizens about their concerns around the overcrowding of our schools," Arnold said.

"We can't continue to grow at the rate that we're growing and not reinvest inthings like schools, so very happy to see some growth on that, but it doesn't look like it's enough."

Arnold suggested the province should repurchase the former Moncton High School building.

The landmark building on Church Street closed in 2015, and the property was later sold totoHeritage Developments Ltd. for $1 million in 2018. The companyintended to convert it to leasable commercial space, but it remains vacant.

"Schools are very, very expensive to build. We know that. And we have a perfectly good in fact fantastic school sitting in the heart of our city," Arnold said.

"I think I can speak on behalf of many, many citizens in our community who would so love to see that as a school again in our community."

Earlier this year, the provincial government confirmed it had considered buying back the building.However, it ruled it out given the estimated cost to meet current educational facilities standards.

MacLean said the capital budget also includes money to keep Hillcrest and Bessborough schools in Moncton's west end open, but didn't have the figures at hand during the interview.

The Anglophone East district education council voted to keep those schools open earlier this year once a new school opens next year.

That new school, which has yet to be named, was originally planned forkindergarten to Grade 8 but will instead be a middle school.