Celebrating 13 years!!! New School and Daycare Announced for Ste. Anne

By Dan Guetre

While leaks in government plans and announcements are common and sometimes expected, this wasn’t the case when the Mayor of the town of Ste. Anne was asked to come to a press conference recently.

“I guess it’s very easy to keep quiet… town got the invite to attend press conference two days before but we weren’t 100% sure what it was even for as no details were shared until the press conference,” said Mayor Yvan St. Vincent who, while surprised, was very happy with the announcement of a new school planned for construction in his community.

“I’m very excited!” said St. Vincent. “It’s much needed and great for our community and neighbouring communities!”

The new school along with a new child-care centre was more than expected but definitely necessary for the growing community and region.

The plan is to construct a vocational high school for grades 9-12 as part of Seine River School Division and is slated for completion in 2027.

“This new school and child-care space will benefit families of Ste. Anne and the surrounding community for years to come,” said Dawson Trail MLA Bob Lagasse. “It will also strengthen the rich, francophone heritage of our region.”

While the Seine River School Division (SRSD) had a bit more forewarning before the announcement, it was still an exciting announcement.

“We’re extremely pleased!” said Wendy Bloomfield, Chairperson of SRSD. “We have been pushing for and waiting for approval for a new school in Ste. Anne for several years. We are excited for SRSD and the students and staff and also for the Town of Ste. Anne. This will be a wonderful new addition to this community.”

Specifics are still being worked on for what this new school and daycare centre will look like.

“We need to do a considerable amount of work determining the capacity, potential vocational offerings, daycare attached or stand alone, etc. before we can start with developing any drawings,” said Bloomfield. “The Province is tendering all the nine new school projects together, so at this point we have no idea who the architect, builder, etc. is. This process is quite different than other new schools we’ve built in past, and unfortunately we haven’t yet been provided with many details or timelines.”

Bloomfield was still surprised with part of the announcement though.

“The inclusion of a daycare facility in the announcement was a bit of a surprise,” she explained. “I’m familiar with daycare facilities being ap - proved with K-8 schools, but I wasn’t expecting it with a high school.”

“That being said, this is also a very welcome addition for SRSD and Ste. Anne,” she said.

Courses offered, capacity and other logistics are not available as of yet but Bloomfield says that will be worked out as the fine tuning stage takes place.

“The actual configuration is to be determined once we meet with the Province,” she explained. “We are just now able to start the planning for this exciting new school, however, at the moment we do not have the anticipated capacity. In terms of courses, at this point all we know is that it is a vocational school. I’m sure we will be having considerable consultations with the Department of Education, our staff, trustees, etc. as to what exactly we will be able to offer. There are a lot of planning steps required before we get down to starting to talk design.”

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