Westshield

Hanover Purchases Land For New School

Written by Shannon Dueck on Tuesday, 27 May 2014

The province has yet to approve a new Kindergarten to grade four school for Steinbach, but Hanover School Division has already picked out the location. Superintendent Randy Dueck says they have purchased a ten acre site in Parkhill Place. The future school would be located north of McKenzie Avenue and east of Bushfarm Road.

Albert Rempel, President and Chief Executive Officer for Westshield Developments says once complete, Parkhill Place will be home to more than five hundred single family, fourplex and townhouse style condo residences. He notes the bike and walking paths and toboggan hill of L.A. Barkman Park, as well as the adjacent five-pitch soccer park make this community ideal for adults and children alike.

Dueck says they would like permission to construct a school as soon as possible. He notes by 2018 they will likely be using 22 modular or portable classrooms for students aged K-4 in Steinbach. If you consider the maximum number of twenty students per modular classroom, then by 2018 there will be 440 K-4 students using a modular classroom. Dueck says that is the equivalent of another school. Hanover has requested a new 480 seat K-4 school.

“We’ve already made the request in our five year capital plans,” says Dueck. “And then we leave it up to the province to decide when to acknowledge that request. Our hopes would be that it would be sooner than later.”

Dueck notes the division is delighted by the location of this proposed future school.

“It’s in close proximity to a very large park there, it’s in close proximity to the soccer fields,” he says. “It’s in the midst of a development that’s already developing and it will really allow us to address the K to four classroom needs for kids on the west side of Steinbach and it’s a location we’ve been looking at for some time.”

Yet, all things considered, Dueck says a new K-4 school for Steinbach isn’t even priority one for the division.

“Niverville is priority number one,” he says. “Niverville is growing faster than Steinbach and the need is more urgent in Niverville. But Steinbach is right behind Niverville on that one.”

“We’re extremely pleased that the Hanover School Division was interested in being within our subdivision,” says Rempel. “Obviously that’s a great benefit to the development and to families. What it really means is that families will have a school within close proximity of where they are and where they’re living.”