Warman mayor not sold on the idea of joint area high school

Overcapacity in Warman and Martensville’s high schools has led to a call for a new facility to service for the two cities.

There is a proposal on the table that would see a joint Catholic and public high school built on Township Road 384, east of Martensville, and southwest of Warman.

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Martensville has endorsed this plan, but Warman’s mayor Gary Philipchuk would like to see something else.

“We would like it within the cities — one within Warman and one within Martensville,” he said.

“(We would) announce it together and build them together… the infrastructure is already in place, we know how the transportation networks and everything else would connect.”

The joint high school plan isn’t new.

“The application went in over two years ago, so it’s been quite a while that it’s been on the radar,” Philipchuk said. “The city of Martensville endorsed it, Corman Park endorsed it and Warman never did.”

Philipchuk said a high school is a community hub within each city and building it “in a field” is taking that away.

“I realized that’s the beginning of it (area development),” he said.

“The two cities would need to grow in those areas and right now both cities are moving in directions away from that area.”

Philipchuk believes the smoothest way to get more high school capacity for the cities is to have one in Warman and one in Martensville.

“We just need more learning spaces,” he said.

“There will be some challenges (with the proposed site) as we’re moving into an area just off of a highway — all students needing to be bussed for the foreseeable future would be one of them.”

While Philipchuk said his preference is for a Catholic school for Warman.

“We need a Catholic high school right now,” he said. “The only option for students in the Catholic system in Warman is to go to Saskatoon for grades nine to 12 or go to the public schools within our community.”

The City of Martensville said in a statement that the city is in support of the “initiative to develop a joint school that serves our city and our neighbouring communities.”

The statement said that with significant growth expected in Martensville, there will be a need for more education resources, including a high school.

Philipchuk said he expects more conversations to happen regarding the new school.

“We look forward to that … we did some reaching out, but it just seemed to keep moving up within the priorities,” he said.

Since both the Prairie Spirit School Division and Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools submitted capital requests, the joint high school sits in the top two spots on the priority capital projects list.

In a statement provided to 650 CKOM, Prairie Spirit School Division said they are excited to partner with Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools to build a new facility.

They said Warman’s high school is operating at 103 per cent capacity and that Martensville’s high school is operating at 92 per cent capacity.

At the start of the decade, 541 students were enrolled at Martensville High School and in 2024 that number is now 701. In Warman the number was 669 in 2020 and now sits at 751.

— with files from CKOM News

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