THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS

If there’s a sense of urgency emanating from the proposal to dovetail a new public high school and city recreation centre in far southwest Edmonton, it’s because the demand for both school space and recreational services is getting close to critical.

In just seven years, Edmonton’s public school district predicts it will have 6,000 more teenagers than spaces currently available in high schools. The board says it needs work to get underway within the next three years on two new high schools to accommodate 2,400 students each in the city’s fast-growing southern margins.

The provincial government announced in November that it would spend $79 million to build the first phase of a Heritage Valley high school for 1,800 students. It’s a start, but not nearly enough.

Meanwhile, the booming population in the city’s southwest quadrant is giving the city its own headaches. In Heritage Valley, for example, the nearest library branches are Riverbend and Whitemud Crossing — both about eight kilometres away. The Terwillegar Recreation Centre, too, is overwhelmed, serving 1.2 million visitors a year in a space designed for 800,000.

Southwest Edmonton public trustee Nathan Ip and Ward 9 Coun. Tim Cartmell plan on lobbying their respective colleagues to spur discussions between the city, community groups, public agencies and the school district to co-ordinate planning and possibly share or connect infrastructure. The idea should be expanded to include the provincial and federal governments as well.

Education Minister David Eggen already wants school boards to find efficiencies by sharing services and buildings and this concept builds on that co-operation.

Despite potentially unwieldy funding and jurisdictional issues, collaboration is a concept that makes sense. All partners stand to save money while students and residents benefit from shared and easily accessible physical education facilities, health services, libraries, meeting space and other amenities.

As Cartmell says, it doesn’t mean that a Heritage Valley facility jumps the queue ahead of rec centres for Lewis Farms and Coronation Park in the west end; it’s just good planning.

Collaboration has already proven successful in a few instances: The Catholic School District’s Cardinal Collins high school completion centre shares space with the Clareview Recreation Centre. Edmonton Catholic Schools and the city share the St. Francis Xavier Sports Centre and the public and Catholic districts in Beaumont split a K-9 school building.

Our public bodies owe it to students and citizens to find more ways to collaborate and share.