Regina Public Schools CEO cautiously optimistic about Building Schools Faster Act

The head of Regina Public Schools said he’s “cautiously optimistic” about the newly announced Building Schools Faster Act.

It was announced during Wednesday’s speech from the throne, and requires municipalities to “acquire and service sufficient land for the construction of new schools.”

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Mark Haarman, director and CEO of Regina Public Schools (RPS), said he’s excited about the announcement but still wants to hear more details.

“We’ve had some issues meeting space needs here in Regina in the past, but from what I’ve read in the throne speech, this seems like a very positive thing for our school division and our staff and students,” Haarman told 980 CJME on Thursday.

The RPS CEO said an act like this would have sped up the construction of the long-awaited Harbour Landing West School, which is currently underway.

“It’s a welcome development that the new Harbour Landing West (school) is being built, but it should have been finished two years ago,” Haarman said.

The new joint-use elementary school in Harbour Landing, located on the corner of Gordon Road and Campbell Street in southwest Regina, is slated to open in 2027. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

“I do believe what’s being committed to here is a result of various levels of government and school divisions learning a valuable lesson that we just need to find a way to build schools faster, and this act seems to be a commitment to that. Any lesson learned is a good lesson learned, so we’re excited to see if this will prevent this from happening in the future.”

Harbour Landing West was meant to ease the capacity concerns of the existing Harbour Landing and St. Kateri Tekakwitha School, which share the same building.

Overcrowding at the joint-use school had gotten so dire that librarians had begun teaching some classes in the hallway at one point, sparking safety concerns.

To deal with the overcrowding, RPS enacted several boundary changes to move 200 students from Harbour Landing School to Ethel Miliken School until Harbour Landing West is built in 2023.

Other projects

Haarman hopes the Building Schools Faster Act can expedite the construction of a new elementary school in southeast Regina by 2028.

He said numerous boundary changes have already been made to accommodate this plan as well, though Haarman stated that boundary changes in general were less than ideal.

“Kids are separated from friends, teachers have to move to other locations (and) we incur significant transportation costs,” Haarman said.

“(They have) a big impact on the system in terms of our costs, on our staff, but more importantly, it impacts families and kids. They end up being moved to schools that are farther from their home communities. Boundaries are never easy things to put in place, because they’re change and change is never easy.”

Haarman also said it was “incredibly important” for the province to be proactive in terms of building schools to accommodate Regina’s growing population.

He said Regina’s population growth has slowed due to the federal government cutting down on immigration, but RPS expects growth to pick up again.

The RPS CEO said new schools will be needed for northwest Regina and the new Coopertown neighbourhood.