Two regional school boards(Prairie South Public School Division #210 and Holy Trinity Catholic School Division) and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, started in 2014, planning activities regarding elementary school renewal on South Hill.

As the Moose Jaw Public School Board #1 was eliminated in 2006 as a result of amalgamation this is the first new school construction project for Moose Jaw under a regional governance structure for Public and Catholic Education in Moose Jaw.

The result of the boards’ planning resulted in an announcement in September 2019 made without prior consultation with the City of Moose Jaw and based on a KPMG Report that a $50,000,000 student joint use school with a projected enrolment of over 1,100 students from Prekindergarten to Grade 8 be built in an already Zoned Residential area  in the WestHeath subdivision in the most south westerly corner of South Hill.

This proposed mega school would result in the closing of 4 long standing and community centred Pre-kindergarten to Grade 8 elementary school locations: Westmount, Sacred Heart Community School, Empire Community School and St Mary.

Each school is distinctively located in well established neighbourhoods next to acres of municipal recreation parks and spaces including Smith Park; Optimist Park; and Parkhill Park.
These parks have accessible acres of public spaces for students to use for outdoor physical activities and classroom teachings.

With these municipal parks attached to 3 of the 4 existing school sites, they are 40% larger than the proposed school site. These parks have lots of room to have students use for activities and learnings. All of these parks have numerous ball diamonds, soccer fields, playgrounds, year round dedicated outdoor surfaces for ice hockey and basketball and playground equipment and 3 paddling and/or spray parks.

The present school sites are also well situated for easily accessing the Moose Jaw River Valley and Wakamow Valley Authority lands. The valley contains many registered archaeological and paleontological sites and centuries of history from those here before modern times.

Moving all of the students from 4 closed schools to one mega school as the only Public and Catholic option for Prekindergarten to Grade 8 on South Hill and away from: well equipped and spacious school yards, rinks, tracks, fields and parks seems to be contrary to the belief that children should be as active as possible to combat present day issues of Obesity, Diabetes Type 2 and heart disease.

Moving students away from easily accessible and nearby river valley eco-system full of documented Indigenous and Metis histories seems like a move backwards rather than forwards with regard to reconciliation.

The proposed site lacks any existing facilities. The proposal will close dedicated park space known as Westheath Park,(Wellington Dr and Spadina Dr), that has a children’s playground and outdoor hockey rink which is owned and maintained by the City of Moose Jaw. Instead of dedicated park space existing as Westheath Park, the rink will be re-located on to the school site instead of being retained as long established part of city owned dedicated public green space.

Because the proposed site lacks municipal infrastructure such as streets, lights, curb, gutter, sewer and water the ministry of Education will be allocating monies for the creation of these items. These items already are provided at existing school sites. Building on an existing site would ensure Ministry of Education sector dollars would be spent on the actual construction of the new school buildings and amenities and not on streets, lights, curb, gutter and roads. 

Space is a huge issue at this location choice as the project is scheduled to have 1100 students, as well as a day care centre, so in order to meet city bylaws there would be a huge parking lot containing around 125 parking stalls.

As well, a big part of the proposed project is that 21 diesel bus parking stalls are needed in a "bus corral" as a result of the coordinated joint use bus system for the 1100 students that will arrive and leave for the same start and end times. Due to the out of the way location, it is estimated by the school boards that 71% of students or approximately 750 students will need to be bussed to this proposed location choice. 

As 71% of students are farther than 1 km. and residing in a new catchment area for the proposed school that is 29 blocks wide and crosses major arteries, there is also a need to have large drop off and pick up zones for not only the estimated 21 joint use busses but to also accommodate students who are being transported by private vehicle for a variety of reasons.

If this location gets approved, this project would go against three major aspects of Moose Jaw’s Official Community Plan as this location is not central for the 1100 student catchment area; is not next to any public parks, adjacent municipal reserves or recreational infrastructure; and by eliminating the long existing and fully public and accessible Westheath playground and rink, the amount of dedicated public green space in this subdivision is drastically reduced.

These are the three sections of the Official Community Plan that are referenced above:

7.2.2(b): "All elementary school sites should be located as close as possible to the centre of the areas they will ultimately serve." This proposed joint school site in Westheath is not. 

7.2.2(d): "School sites shall, wherever possible, be located adjacent to Municipal reserves or other public open spaces. The use of the school and park facilities as the recreational centre for the neighbourhood or other area being served shall be promoted". This proposed joint use site in Westheath is not. 

13.2(a): “The City shall ensure that a minimum ratio of 4 hectares(green space) per 100 residents continues to be maintained”. This project proposes to close the existing Westheath playground and outdoor rink and re-establish a rink onto the new proposed school site thus reducing dedicated public space in this subdivision. 

Incomplete Traffic Impact Assessment

As concerns for traffic and student safety were well documented for this location, a Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) was required under the agreement signed by the City, the School Boards and the Ministry of Education. Due to older than 10 year data being used for the TIA, the study was labeled "limited" and a full TIA was never completed. As this location is not centralized for South Hill, the proposed site requires major bussing of at least 750 students and is located in a hard to reach area of South Hill that involves students and families crossing major arteries. Is a full TIA not a good idea to complete before shovels are in the ground?

The Time To Sign This Petition is now and throughout the council review process.

Moose Jaw City Council voted and approved a motion on December 12, 2022 based on an administrative recommendation, that public consultation be "foregone" and no public consultations are necessary on this under despite meeting criteria that calls for public consultation such as: major changes in present land use; the land area in question is bigger than 2 hectares as per the City of Moose Jaw's Public Consultation Bylaw #5642.

City administration was provided with a recommendation from Administration that enough public consultation was performed by the school boards and the Ministry, despite no public opportunities to review the surprising and unexpected Westheath location site choice done by KPMG.

Only in April 2021, did the boards extend an opportunity for public input after they made the announcement in 2019. However, the Boards’ own “Survey Monkey” for the April 2021 survey stated,”This engagement is not about whether or not a school should be built in Westheath. That decision has been made.”

That one and only “survey” consultation was only on school design not on location

This is despite what Moose Jaw city council was told by ministry officials in at the September 8th, 2020 council meeting as reported in Moose Jaw Today.."that once the ministry and school divisions develop options to locate the school on the Westheath site, it will engage in town hall meetings to ensure the community’s voice is heard. Jensen told Coun. Crystal Froese.The meetings would focus the site location, the location of roads and residential configurations, but wouldn’t be about actual building design”’.

The surprise and hastily announced decision announcement by the school boards in September 2019 that they had chosen city owned and zoned residential land in the far south west corner of South Hill was a total surprise to the City of Moose Jaw. Local media have reported that emails reveal city officials were “blindsided” by this choice and were not prepared to abandon a planned residential neighbourhood and now have to prepare for a total makeover for the area at the behest of two regional school boards and the Ministry.

In fact a town hall meeting that was held and hosted by the two school boards on June 24, 2019(inconveniently scheduled on a Grade 8 Grad night at Westmount) where 4 locations were ranked by attendees, Westmount and Sacred Heart sites were clearly top ranked. A summary was produced and circulated.

The only mention that evening of a Westheath location option was at the end of the session and was never discussed with the group as a whole that night or since.The other 2 possible locations discussed and ranked as the lowest two, was the north side of the 2000 block Coteau St W and south off the 1000 block Warner St. on RM of Moose Jaw land.

Goes against the spirit of the Official Community Plan of Moose Jaw

The amended concept plan does not comply with recommendations in the Official Community Plan of Moose Jaw that elementary schools that serve more than one neighbourhood should be centrally located and next to municipal lands such as parks and recreational areas.

City Council has advertised and placed legal notice that based on information that was contained in the December 12, 2022 council meeting, that they will consider the necessary road closures, rezoning and closing of a Westheath Park city owned playground at their February 13th regular council meeting.

This petition asks that you sign in order to show Moose Jaw City Council a collective voice against these proposed amendments to the city bylaws so that a 1,100 student school does not get approved at this site.

A rejection of this rezoning request and subsequent school of this size on a far smaller site would allow for a re-set and a full public consultation on the option of building on larger existing school sites.

Perhaps after further consultation, the idea and proposal by the regional school boards and ministry of education to build a mega 1,100 student joint use school and a daycare centre is maybe too large for our existing sites on South Hill. It would be suggested as part of a new public consultation on elementary school renewal on South Hill that maybe one option to look at would be to rebuild 2 of the schools at 2 of the present locations such as Westmount and Sacred Heart. Retaining and enlarging the existing fully functional gymnasiums and building new construction of classrooms, recreational amenities and office space.

An opportunity for accessing $50,000,000 of funding for educational offerings on South Hill should not be an exercise that has only had the inputs of regional school board members and ministry of Education personnel and a KPMG report that has never been reviewed by public at large. What was the criteria used for determining and suggesting Westheath is safer than existing school sites?

Building schools(especially of this size) that eliminate locations that are already serving our students and families with numerous amenities should have clear and open community discussions before decisions are made with regard to issuing of tenders and actual construction.

If the result is that we end up with a hard to reach location with traffic, parking, student safety issues and a tiny school yard that is not next to acres of public space, we will have issues that will remain and we as a City of Moose Jaw will have to deal with these critical issues as per pending agreements with the boards, the City of Moose Jaw is solely responsible for further traffic safety mitigation measures after construction ends.

Promote the petition to other Moose Jaw residents for their possible support.
Please take the time to sign the petition and encourage others in Moose Jaw to also read and decide if they would like to sign and support this petition so that a full public consultation will result in looking at other options for elementary school renewal on South Hill.

Moose Jaw taxpayers contribute millions of dollars of education taxes each year to the provincial treasury and residents should have opportunity for input into the size and scope of this joint use school project.

Options that include whether it may be better to enhance two of the present sites with new construction that compliments and modernizes them and rejuvenates the schools and existing school neighbourhoods and keeps students with quality access to play space and other recreational amenities in attached municipal parks.

In an present day environment where communities are encouraging healthy active living lifestyles, Moose Jaw should adhere to the sprit of it’s Official Community Plan and ensure that schools are built and maintained at safe locations, centrally located if serving large catchment areas and that students have the safe, convenient access to large schoolyards and adjacent municipal parks that offer solid physical and wellness opportunities.

We need to get this right for our community as further education dollars would be scarce to correct any shortfalls in planning for a project of this size. If South Hill grows in the future in this proposed area where will the new students go?

What will happen to the existing school sites that are owned by the school boards including gymnasiums?

Will there be a need to re-establish elementary schools on those sites? Can this Westheath School expand at that proposed site, if not, will existing sites be available? 

Let’s show our opposition to this mega school proposal and have real engagement and opportunities for public consultation on where best to have elementary school renewal that coincides with our Official Community Plan and allows Moose Jaw to offer top quality educational choices to its residents.

Under present bylaws only residents within 90 metres of this proposed site are needed to be formally contacted, sign this petition and send your own voice to oppose this proposal.

This school affects all of South Hill.

Please if you desire, please sign before February 13th and if needed past that date as this issue continues to be reviewed by our city councillors.

Show your support…sign and ask other Moose Jaw residents to sign and show opposition to City Council to not approve the bylaw amendments associated with this proposal.

Our community needs to be consulted on such an important choice of what elementary school renewal is for South Hill and where the new facilities are to be located.

Thank you!