Southview, Niblock Schools to Close At End of Scholastic Year

The Medicine Hat School District board meeting on Tuesday to decide on the fate of two city elementary schools. (Photo Tom Fougere)

The Medicine Hat School Division’s trustees voted unanimously to close two city elementary schools Tuesday.

Webster Niblock and Southview Community schools will be shuttering at the end of the 2025-26 school year.

“The hardest part is the emotional side of it,” said board chair Catherine Wilson about the closures following the meeting. “When you look at the data, when you look at the numbers you know you’re making the right decision. But it doesn’t mean it’s easy on your heart to know you’re up rooting children and they’re having to start at a new school.”

In the lead up to the vote, school district officials highlighted declining enrollment numbers across the division and specifically those schools with less than 200 students along with falling local birth rates. Tuesday saw officials reveal current projections show a further reduction of around 4 per cent over the next decade in enrollment.

Officials pegged operating cost savings at around a half a million dollars while $5 million in deferred maintenance costs at the two schools won’t be required to be spent.

School boundaries will be realigned to reflect the changes with Webster Niblock students being sent to either Vincent Massey or Dr. Ken Sauer while Southview School children will be divided between Ross Glen and Crestwood.

Of those schools, only Dr. Ken Sauer will require additional modular classrooms added as the current capacity will be exceeded without the additions. Vincent Massey will also have the option to utilize modular classrooms if required while both Ross Glen and Crestwood will have capacity to deal with the projected influx of students from Southview.

Wilson said school district administrators will now start the transition process for students, parents and staff at the impacted schools.

“They will start working on the transitioning, bus routes, contacting families and planning out the best way we can do this smoothly for everyone,” said Wilson.

That work will start right away, said district superintendent Tracy Hensel, who also lamented the school closures.

“We’ll be meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) with principals of the receiving schools as well as the closing schools to talk about what do our families need because it may be the same in both schools, it may be different,” said Hensel.

Both Webster Niblock and Southview Community schools will continue normal operations until the end of the school year.

The sale of the schools will be going through a new process from the last school closure of Riverside. The two schools will be reviewed by the province as to whether they can be repurposed by the province first  prior to the school district being able to sell the buildings and associated land.