St. Patrick's Community School in Red Deer is undergoing renovations, over a year after the province announced $9 million worth of funding towards those upgrades.

Phase 1 is currently in progress, upgrading their mechanical room, as well as adding some new classroom spaces, something Supervisor of Support Services for Red Deer Catholic Schools Ken Jaeger says is desperately needed. 

“St. Pat’s has been very crowded for several years, so this modernization upgrade is going to add approximately the equivalent of six classrooms, to the overall capacity.”

More inclusive classrooms, green initiatives, and flexible learning environments were some of the suggestions made at an information session earlier this year, as those suggestions were added to the final renovation plans for St. Patrick's.

Jaeger says the next phases will include building new classrooms, and expanding existing ones to increase their capacity, which is already at 130%.

“Phase 2 will be renovating some existing classroom space sin the school, and that’s probably a 4 to 5 month schedule, and then phase 3 is the final, remaining classroom and introduction spaces in the school, which will be another 4 months or so.”

The work to the 40 year old school should take about 18 months to complete.

Renovations will continue throughout the school year as students return back to classes at the year-round school on August 13th.

Any hazardous construction, such as the removal of asbestos, will be done during off hours, or before students return to class next month.