There is one year-over-year constant in Beautiful Plains School Division, and that is growth. According to Superintendent Jason Young, the comfortable capacity of the three Neepawa schools is about 1200 students. They are currently housing 1500 students and growing, with nine portable classrooms in use and, with any luck, a few more on the way for next year. The most recent of these, Neepawa Middle School, was filled by the time it opened in 2019, just five years ago.

Rain Prior – Local Journalism Initiative

In 2022, the then-PC government announced there would be nine new schools built in Manitoba under a Public-Private Partnership (P3) model, including a new vocational high school in Neepawa. When the NDP came to power, the P3 funding model was rejected and all of the announced schools have been on hold ever since.

“It’s been two years where no new schools have been built in Manitoba, and several school divisions, Beautiful Plains being one of them, are feeling those pressures of growth,” says Young. “The government of the day now has indicated that they will be proceeding with a couple new schools in the coming year, but we don’t know where we are on that order. That remains to be seen.”

Young calls the construction “pushed” rather than cancelled, but says they have been preparing for the school all the same, including continuing negotiations with the landowner, working with the town on a development agreement, and working with the architectural firm on possible school and grounds layouts. As well, infrastructure continues to be built into the area where the school is projected to be built. Young believes that will make them well positioned to proceed when the province makes its decisions about what schools will go forward.

In the meantime, the division continues to deal with the pressures of increased class sizes and ensuring adequate staffing, especially as the student population continues to increase not just at key times of year but steadily throughout the year. Unlike the past few years where almost all of the growth has been through immigration, Young says that about 30% of new students are now coming from other areas of the province or country as a result of the overall growth of the community.

Young commends all the staff members of the division who are meeting these challenges and ensuring an excellent educational environment for all students.