Building & Modernizing Schools
Criteria for School Capital Planning Priorities
Each year, school boards submit a Three-Year School Capital Plan to Alberta Education by April 1. The Calgary Board of Education doesn’t decide when new schools are built. The Provincial Government determines where, when and how new schools are built.
The Calgary Board of Education’s
Three-Year School Capital Plan annually requests new construction and existing school projects from the provincial government. This plan identifies a single prioritized list of major capital construction projects ranging from new school construction to major capital investments into existing schools (such as major modernizations, school replacements or school additions.) The plan identifies priorities for new school construction and existing school projects based on criteria approved by the Board of Trustees.
In Oct. 2024, the Board of Trustees approved
Capital Planning Project Ranking Criteria to replace the New School Criteria and Modernization Criteria. These criteria were used to evaluate new school construction requests and existing school requests as part of the 2026-29 Three-Year School Capital Plan.
New School Construction and Existing School Criteria
- Preschool population using all preschool children
- Enrolment in CBE schools
- Projected five-year sector population growth
- Median travel time (considers travel time and distance of overflow school to the community)
- Number of bus receiver schools required for the community
- Existing K-4 or 5-9 school approved or in existence
- Greater than two transition points (K-9)
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- Enrolment in CBE schools
- Projected five-year sector population growth
- Median travel time (considers travel time and distance of overflow school to the community)
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- Demographic description of future catchment area and population at full build-out
- Utilization by student enrolment rates for a five-year period
- Utilization by student residences. The utilization rate if all existing high school students were accommodated in schools in their community.
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- Potential projects identified through Modular Classroom Program, assessment of existing modulars on site, SSAP
- Population projection of school cohort, planning sector and/or community
- Previous Capital Plan or Modular Classroom approvals within close proximity that could provide additional capacity
- Potential future school sites identified in long-range planning documents
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- Schools over 50-years old are eligible for ranking criteria.
- Facility Condition Index (FCI)
- Other scored criteria: project complexity, school accessibility, energy efficiency
- Contextual Analysis: utilization rates, long-term student projections, long-term community population projections and impact of previous Capital approvals.
- Further vetting of prioritized existing school projects including awarding system priority points to reflect any pertinent and emergent unscored factors.
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- Is the school over or projected to be over 90% in the next three years?
- Is the accommodation challenge due to out-of-boundary students?
- Does the school accommodate students from a community approved for a new school?
- Is the school a starter school?
- Is there a school in an adjacent community that can accommodate the students in the long term?
- Can the school site accommodate additional modular classrooms?
If the school does not meet any of these filters, the school will not proceed to the ranking process.
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