The top project on the Calgary Catholic School Division's (CCSD)  list of capital projects for 2021 to 2024 is not a school in the city.  

St. Martin de Porres High School in Airdrie has that distinction according to the province's Education department.  Upgrades are badly needed at the school, which is the only Catholic High School in the city.  It's currently at 104 percent of capacity.

The CCSD says many of its 118 schools in Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane, and Chestermere are over capacity but the division doesn't have the money needed to expand them.  The division is looking to the government to help.

The chair of the CCSD board of trustees says schools are bursting at the seams and that is impacting the quality of education that they can offer.  She says the Catholic Division has received less funding than other boards in Calgary and Edmonton and wants to see the province allocate them more in the provincial budget.

Every year school boards must submit a three-year capital plan that describes their top needs to Alberta Education.  Those plans are then used by the province to develop their capital plan with the Education and Infrastructure departments prioritizing the requests based on health and safety, enrollment pressures, building conditions, functionality and programming, and legal requirements.

The full list of school capital projects for the three years starting in 2021 will be released by the government in the spring.  Over 56,000 students attend schools in the CCSD.   

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