AIRDRIE — Alberta Premier Alison Redford announced a new elementary school in Airdrie Wednesday, but how and when it will be built is undetermined.
The school will serve as many as 600 kindergarten to Grade 4 students.
It is the sixth new school announced this month by Redford’s government as part of a promise to build 50 schools and modernize 70 more by 2016.
None of the projects has timelines for construction, but Education Minister Jeff Johnson, said they’re working to accommodate tens of thousands of newcomers to Alberta each year.
“Would you rather we not announce schools?,” Johnson told reporters after the announcement in front of teachers, students and school officials at Nose Creek elementary school.
Johnson said the announcement is the start of the process.
“One of the challenges we have is when you’re rolling out so many schools, you don’t know until you’ve actually got the formal announcement which schools you could look at to put in which kind of tender packages.”
The Opposition Wildrose party said the promises need details soon in order for Redford to meet her commitment.
“They continue to make announcements, but signs and photo ops don’t magically turn into classrooms,” Wildrose Education critic Bruce McAllister said this week.