Regina Construction IV

[gecho111]

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

Do joint-use schools actually work? I'm not sure how common they are everywhere else, but it feels like Regina is going all in on them for future school constructions.

Economies of scale I guess. Many of the old schools were small single story buildings. I imagine the new ones tend to be bigger than the sum of the schools being consolidated which provides room for growth.

I still find it kind of funny that the Harbour Landing school had 6 double-decker modular additions, plus a single added to it right from the start.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

Do joint-use schools actually work? I'm not sure how common they are everywhere else, but it feels like Regina is going all in on them for future school constructions.

Most other provinces either have gone away with the 2 different school system model or never really had it to begin with. So it's probably difficult to find many comparable situations.

Personally, I think it'd be more efficient to have 1 school system and then have the churches run extra religion-based classes (aka Sunday school) if there is actually a desire for it. Religious organizations are supposed to be non-profit organizations anyway.

I'd also want to remove all government funding from religious schools. The mess with the private Christian schools lately is enough of an incentive to get out of that murky situation.

[Festivus]

Originally Posted by one_brick_at_a_time

How much government funding does the Catholic system get in Saskatchewan compared to Public schools. I would absolutely find it concerning if catholic schools were getting extra funding through merging on a public school project.

In Saskatchewan all public-funded schools (both Public and Catholic) receive the same funding based on a few factors, such as student enrolment and busing costs (so rural schools will get more $ per student because of additional busing costs, etc). Some additional money is handed out for capital investments such as new schools, etc, based on specific needs. But overall, the funding is the same between the two types of divisions, there isn't any secret Vatican money coming in (as far as anyone is aware).

[UPP]

Originally Posted by Nathan

Most other provinces either have gone away with the 2 different school system model or never really had it to begin with. So it's probably difficult to find many comparable situations.

Personally, I think it'd be more efficient to have 1 school system and then have the churches run extra religion-based classes (aka Sunday school) if there is actually a desire for it. Religious organizations are supposed to be non-profit organizations anyway.

I'd also want to remove all government funding from religious schools. The mess with the private Christian schools lately is enough of an incentive to get out of that murky situation.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario have public and separate school divisions. Quebec used to as well but they shifted to English and French during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960's.

The reason why these 4 provinces have dual divisions goes back to Confederation. To appease minority religions in Ontario and Quebec who had schools in place, these schools were enshrined constitutionally when Ontario and Quebec became part of Canada (Catholic schools in Ontario and Protestant Schools in Quebec). Since then, any province with separate schools in place when they entered Confederation were constitutionally guaranteeed to continue having their schools. Saskatchewan and Alberta met this criteria. So, public separate school divisions are constitutionally guaranteed in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario.

To answer the question of another post, until recently, Public divisions received slightly more funding per pupil (about $300 per student) however that gap has closed and in comparable systems such as Regina Catholic vs Regina Public or Greater Saskatoon Catholic vs Saskatoon Public, the funding is virtually identical. Both divisions run very efficiently.

Finally, someone asked why Regina has so many dual-track schools. School divisions in Saskatchewan have no authority to complete capital projects on their own. This includes new school construction. About 10-12 years ago, the Ministry of Learning decided that no new Catholic school could be built without a joint public school. So, theoretically, a public school could be built alone, but not a separate one although that hasn't happened in Regina. School rebuilds, such as Sacred Heart School, Scott Collegiate, Douglas Park School, etc are exempt.

[StealthGirl]

Regina Public has some associate schools under its banner as well (Regina Christian School, Huda School, Harvest Christian Academy).

I believe some of the joint elementary schools in Regina are sharing school buses as well.

The mess with the school in Harbour Landing is that the developers were allowed to change the density of the division on the fly and the school that had been the appropriate size for the original plan couldn't handle the new plan. The coming problem that no one is really seriously looking at in Regina is that there are a ton of overflowing elementary schools and these students will all flood into the high school system where they haven't opened a new high school since 1996 (and lost one since then when Usher closed in 2008). I'm not confident that the current talk about a SE high school will come to anything; they've been talking about a SE high school for 30 years. At one point, the proposed site was where the Temple is on Wascana Gate.

[Festivus]

Originally Posted by StealthGirl

Regina Public has some associate schools under its banner as well (Regina Christian School, Huda School, Harvest Christian Academy).

I believe some of the joint elementary schools in Regina are sharing school buses as well.

The mess with the school in Harbour Landing is that the developers were allowed to change the density of the division on the fly and the school that had been the appropriate size for the original plan couldn't handle the new plan. The coming problem that no one is really seriously looking at in Regina is that there are a ton of overflowing elementary schools and these students will all flood into the high school system where they haven't opened a new high school since 1996 (and lost one since then when Usher closed in 2008). I'm not confident that the current talk about a SE high school will come to anything; they've been talking about a SE high school for 30 years. At one point, the proposed site was where the Temple is on Wascana Gate.

The proposed Catholic High School (or maybe joint use?) in the SE (Creeks area) is theoretically happening...but as always it's being massively opposed by people who live there, even though the plans were in place prior to them buying the houses. Everyone wants a school within walking distance, but not on their street.

Harbour Landing desperately needs a second set of schools, but I believe the new building is greater than four years away due to disagreement between the city and developer (developer doesn't want to give up the agreed-upon land because that would mean fewer houses sold).

At some point the city needs to take over new developments and stop allowing developers to dictate so many things.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by Festivus

The proposed Catholic High School (or maybe joint use?) in the SE (Creeks area) is theoretically happening...but as always it's being massively opposed by people who live there, even though the plans were in place prior to them buying the houses. Everyone wants a school within walking distance, but not on their street.

Harbour Landing desperately needs a second set of schools, but I believe the new building is greater than four years away due to disagreement between the city and developer (developer doesn't want to give up the agreed-upon land because that would mean fewer houses sold).

At some point the city needs to take over new developments and stop allowing developers to dictate so many things.

Pretty sure the high school would go north of Arcola. Edit: The City's concept plan says it will be on Aren's Rd. south of Chuka.

[gecho111]

Rail going in for the Cargill crushing plant already.

They've been doing piles since the spring without a single piece of structural steel up yet. Probably piles, utility runs and concrete pads will be done before buildings start going up. There must be hundreds of piles out there by now, it would be interesting to see some drone images of the site. I saw some pipeline work heading toward the site from the south, I imagine that facility will use a lot of gas.

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Originally Posted by gecho111

Rail going in for the Cargill crushing plant already.

They've been doing piles since the spring without a single piece of structural steel up yet. Probably piles, utility runs and concrete pads will be done before buildings start going up. There must be hundreds of piles out there by now, it would be interesting to see some drone images of the site. I saw some pipeline work heading toward the site from the south, I imagine that facility will use a lot of gas.

Such a great shot! Loblaw looks gigantic!

[StealthGirl]

Originally Posted by Stormer

Pretty sure the high school would go north of Arcola. Edit: The City's concept plan says it will be on Aren's Rd. south of Chuka.

Yep, I'm going to be skeptical until there are shovels in the ground. At one point it was going to be where the Temple is. At another point, they had targeted the spot where the Celebration Church is on Renfrew near the Brewed Awakening on Prince of Wales.

City's Catalyst Committee is doing half-assed public consultations Oct 17-20 (Monday to Thursday 11-1pm and 5-7pm at Mosaic Stadium) with each day for a different development. This is looking very much like they don't really want much public input bc the decisions are probably already made.

https://www.cjme.com/2022/10/07/city...lyst-projects/

[TechnicalRecession]

Originally Posted by StealthGirl

Yep, I'm going to be skeptical until there are shovels in the ground. At one point it was going to be where the Temple is. At another point, they had targeted the spot where the Celebration Church is on Renfrew near the Brewed Awakening on Prince of Wales.

City's Catalyst Committee is doing half-assed public consultations Oct 17-20 (Monday to Thursday 11-1pm and 5-7pm at Mosaic Stadium) with each day for a different development. This is looking very much like they don't really want much public input bc the decisions are probably already made.

https://www.cjme.com/2022/10/07/city...lyst-projects/

So you will be attending and providing your input then?

[gecho111]

Greens storm channel extended up to Cumberland, so development might proceed north of Arens next year.

[Newstart]

Originally Posted by gecho111

Greens storm channel extended up to Cumberland, so development might proceed north of Arens next year.

The land north of Arens is mostly phase 3 lands and they haven’t even started Phase 2 lands. Until the land owners apply to move the phasing up nothing other than the school will be build north of Arens. The works are to facilitate the final two single family phases of Eastbrook and extending the storm channel is just part and parcel. 3-5 yrs before development north of Arens

[gecho111]

Originally Posted by Newstart

The land north of Arens is mostly phase 3 lands and they haven’t even started Phase 2 lands. Until the land owners apply to move the phasing up nothing other than the school will be build north of Arens. The works are to facilitate the final two single family phases of Eastbrook and extending the storm channel is just part and parcel. 3-5 yrs before development north of Arens

Things have been really moving this year. Row houses on Chuka made it all the way to Arens this year. The Trombley Street extension added last year is well populated all the way to Arens. The Green Stone extension added this year has a foundation on every lot and over the house frames are up. All the dashed roads in this map are either already paved (but not open) or should be paved by the end of the month (there's currently a hole between Green Turtle and Buckingham so there will be a gap there for now). Arens will almost certainly get connected to Woodland Grove next year.

[StealthGirl]

Originally Posted by TechnicalRecession

So you will be attending and providing your input then?

A couple of those days are impossible, but I'm going to try.

[caveat.doctor]

Originally Posted by gecho111

Economies of scale I guess. Many of the old schools were small single story buildings. I imagine the new ones tend to be bigger than the sum of the schools being consolidated which provides room for growth.

Definitely seems that way - these new schools seem huge! This one is the joint one replacing my old school St Pie X I think:



There is some shared community space as well in addition to the two school spaces: you can see the "Community entrance" here in the middle, between the St Elizabeth to the left and the Wascana Plains off image to the right:

Originally Posted by gecho111

Things have been really moving this year. Row houses on Chuka made it all the way to Arens this year. The Trombley Street extension added last year is well populated all the way to Arens. The Green Stone extension added this year has a foundation on every lot and over the house frames are up. All the dashed roads in this map are either already paved (but not open) or should be paved by the end of the month (there's currently a hole between Green Turtle and Buckingham so there will be a gap there for now). Arens will almost certainly get connected to Woodland Grove next year.

Really is growing like weeds! Hard to believe when I was growing up in Woodland Grove that that open field would fill up - first Windsor Park, then everything beyond. Popped by on Thanksgiving weekend and took some photos. I don't know all the street names yet so can't label them, but I started around Chuka Dr and went as far as the construction seemed to go:



Besides more row and semi-detached housing, overall much less stucco being used than 10-20 years ago



Streets still seem excessively wide for purpose even as an arterial road. Kind of annoyingly the speed limit goes down to 30 km/h near the school even though the road width and wide building spacing nudges you that you should be driving faster





Single detached homes seem to be kept on the side streets. The lighting is lower and a more human scale, but hardly any trees anywhere, not even saplings planted







I do notice though that parking lots in the last decade or so have more attention paid to landscaping. Compare to lots like Victoria Square Mall, or strip malls like Gardiner Square, I don't think they ever had landscaping or trees within the parking lots to soften up the space, provide shade or improve drainage







There seem to be more of these large open field parks in Regina's newer subdivisions than before. Passed by another one in the area that had a covered space for picnics and events, looked to be well used.



Almost abutting the new highway bypass - didn't take long at all!

[djforsberg]

Originally Posted by caveat.doctor

Besides more row and semi-detached housing, overall much less stucco being used than 10-20 years ago

I don't know about anyone else, but I can't stand how plastic looking new suburbs look, from the vinyl siding to the vinyl fences to the lack of trees. It doesn't feel human to me.

[phone]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

I don't know about anyone else, but I can't stand how plastic looking new suburbs look, from the vinyl siding to the vinyl fences to the lack of trees. It doesn't feel human to me.

The lack of trees is what gets me the most. In Saskatoon, the difference between Briarwood, which was developed mainly over the 90s to early 10s, and nearby Rosewood, which started development in the early 10s, could not be more stark. Despite similar low density development patterns and boxy, garage fronted architectural styles, Briarwood has developed into a much more attractive area, largely due to the systematic planting of trees throughout the area.

[cityboy]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

I don't know about anyone else, but I can't stand how plastic looking new suburbs look, from the vinyl siding to the vinyl fences to the lack of trees. It doesn't feel human to me.

I live in the Towns and I have one of those white fences. I hate them too! I would have gone with something else but it would have looked weird when 99% of homeowners have used it.

I get your point about the trees but the developers around here (Terra, Dream) are actually doing a good job putting in decent size trees on Chuka, Greenstone, Buckingham and along the new path on Woodland Grove etc. Horizon Station Park has a huge number of trees. I live on Keller Ave and the builder actually put in a tree on every front lawn. The problem is most people haven't taken care of them and let them die and not replanted. One problem is further South in the Greens, when trees have died, they haven't replaced them-especially on Chuka.

[djforsberg]

Originally Posted by cityboy

I live in the Towns and I have one of those white fences. I hate them too! I would have gone with something else but it would have looked weird when 99% of homeowners have used it.

Ya, that's a fair point.

Originally Posted by cityboy

I get your point about the trees but the developers around here (Terra, Dream) are actually doing a good job putting in decent size trees on Chuka, Greenstone, Buckingham and along the new path on Woodland Grove etc. Horizon Station Park has a huge number of trees. I live on Keller Ave and the builder actually put in a tree on every front lawn. The problem is most people haven't taken care of them and let them die and not replanted. One problem is further South in the Greens, when trees have died, they haven't replaced them-especially on Chuka.

That's too bad . It doesn't seem like people want to put roots down in their community any more (figuratively and literally).