The province announced details Friday about locations of the 14 new school projects promised in Calgary as part of Budget 2026.
Nine will be Calgary Board of Education (CBE) locations, including an addition to Joane Cardinal-Schubert High School, a replacement school at the former Louise Dean school in Kensington, new elementary schools in Walden, Carrington, Cityscape, Kincora/Sage Hill and Mahogany, a new K-9 in Mahogany, and a new middle school in Legacy.
There will be three new Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) schools, including elementary/junior highs in Cityscape and Mahogany, and the lone new high school on the list, in Ambleton.
Rounding out the projects is a new Conseil scolaire FrancoSud junior high school in a location not yet announced, and an expansion of the Alberta Classical Academy’s Currie campus.
All 14 projects are in either the planning or design phase. The province says there are 31 previously announced projects currently underway in Calgary, with 12 schools opening in the 2026-2027 year.
“Calgarians have told us loud and clear that they want to see more schools in their neighbourhoods, and I’m proud to make today’s announcement and I’m confident it’ll meet their expectations,” Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said at Friday’s announcement.
CBE board chair Laura Hack said the locations for the new schools were high priority, and once built will mean students no longer need to ride the bus, in some cases as far as 10 kilometres, to attend class in nearby communities. Many of the projects are in some of Calgary’s newer neighbourhoods.
(Mantai Chow/CBC)
In its three year capital plan for 2026-2029, the CBE said its school utilization rate is 93 per cent for grades K-9, and 108 per cent for grades 10 to 12.
Its goal is to have that utilization rate at or around 85 per cent, to allow for flexibility.
“While these new school projects will significantly ease pressures on our system, their opening dates remain several years away,” Hack said. “In the meantime, our schools continue to face substantial capacity challenges.”
Alberta Teachers’ Association President Jason Schilling echoed that sentiment, saying the new projects will help with enrolment pressures, but that he wants to see more done to address class sizes now.
“While planning and design are important, we look forward to seeing actual shovels in the ground,” Schilling said in a statement.
Crowded classrooms were a key sticking point in the three-week teachers’ strike last fall, which ended after the province introduced back-to-work legislation.
This week, the province announced $10.8 billion in operation funding, a seven-per cent increase over the year prior. The funding will be used to hire more teachers and educational staff, and address the issue of classroom complexity.
Premier Danielle Smith said Wednesday the funding boost is needed to grapple with the province’s booming population that has added some 80,000 students to the system in recent years.