New Vocational High School to Open in Neepawa by 2027

While Beautiful Plains School Division Superintendent Jason Young knew that a new high school was in the works behind the scenes, he was still surprised when the formal announcement came from the Province, months or even years ahead of what he had been expecting. When Neepawa Middle School opened in 2018, itself a fast-tracked project to alleviate the strain on Neepawa’s two existing schools, informal planning started on what would come next but it was only a few months ago that serious planning even started.

The location of the new school has not yet been revealed, as there are a lot of hoops to jump through, but according to Young the school division has narrowed down their options and been approved to start the process to acquire the land, that will likely include rezoning as well as planning out transportation. The footprint of the school needs to be large to house the number of students anticipated as well as specific facilities for vocational programs and the mandated daycare. The minimum is 15 acres, though the division would like to see that number closer to 25. For comparison, the current middle school, high school, and school division office plus their recreational fields combined only occupy about 10 to 12 acres.

It’s the vocational aspect of the new high school that will be the newest addition to the school division. Right now the nearest vocational schools are in Brandon and Dauphin, which leaves a real need in Neepawa and will likely draw additional students from the surrounding area. The new Neepawa school will still have a robust academic program for grades 9 through 12 and even expand the current arts programming, but will also include facilities for students to train in various trades while still in high school..

Young says they are still in discussions about what specific facilities will be a part of the new school, but they have a sense of what will be in demand thanks to the apprenticeship program that the division runs, itself so popular that the division has been having to do job placements outside of the immediate area. Auto and heavy mechanics are certainly areas where there is both community need and student interest, but other options could be as diverse as cabinetmaking, hairdressing, or culinary arts.

When the school is operational, grade levels in the current Neepawa schools will be redistributed based on how large the classes are by that time. The current population of Neepawa schools is still increasing by about ten students a month during the school year,  and since 2010 the school population has grown from two classes in each grade to five. Teacher recruitment is ongoing throughout the year to meet those needs. Young expects that next year the division will once again be using all of the portable classrooms available in the community, so the new high school will take a lot of the pressure off the current schools in addition to offering added value to local students.