Wolf Creek Public Schools has been advocating for a new high school in Blackfalds for a number of years, and it looks like that advocacy has finally come full circle.

School board officials and local dignitaries gathered today to celebrate the announcement of construction funding for a new high school 

Although an official funding designation and timeline have yet to be announced, WCPS Superintendent Jayson Lovell said they will be speaking with AB Infrastructure this week to finalize more details. 

Lovell said the project has been a long-time coming and they are excited to support education for Blackfalds families all the way through to graduation. 

"As the community's grown, and as our student population's grown we've absolutely been working towards this announcement and we're very, very thankful and appreciative that it happened today," he said,

Currently, high school-aged students must travel to Lacombe or sometimes even Red Deer for their education to continue. The new facility will be designed to host 850 students.

"We're currently running at close to 85-87 per cent [capacity] for Lacombe Composite and with this project coming on stream, as we project out to opening - which is likely going to be a three-year window - when we look at the numbers and projections of Lacombe, that'll be closer to 95-100 per cent capacity," Lovell said, explaining that it will help to alleviate some of the pressures for LCHS' operations. 

Lovell said they are looking forward to engaging with the community throughout the design and consultation process to see what will suit the community's needs. He said they want the new facility to be something modern that addresses the needs of student education as they prepare to move forward into their chosen careers.

"We believe that Fine Arts, Career and Technologies Studies (CTS) programming - those two things will be front and centre, and also just a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities as well. There's some discussion about enhancing the facility and some capital funds coming from the Town to augment -which is absolutely fantastic - because they've anticipated this project," he said. 

The Town of Blackfalds has indicated that they are willing to look at supporting the enhancement of the school as they transform the area where it will be located, which is adjacent to the current Iron Ridge Junior Campus.

"There's a whole redesign of that space that the Town has put together with a master plan that includes enhanced parking, recreation facilities and it would be a partnership opportunity for us. It's not just the design of the school and that particular location, it's expanding and tying all of those other features into the design of the school, which is incredibly exciting to have that opportunity"

Lovell said that very soon the school division will be in consultation mode within the community to find out more about the needs and wants of stakeholders and families.