Proposed Aldersyde School Site photo: Erika Taylor

Plans for a new high school near the Legacy Field House near Aldersyde are moving ahead.

The Town of Okotoks, last week, announced it had purchased land west of Holy Trinity Academy and Mayor Bill Robertson said it could be used for a school.

The Assistant Superintendent for Corporate Services with the Foothills School Division, Drew Chipman, says for them it's full steam ahead at the field house.

"We're certainly in the planning stages, it's great news that the Town's recognized that we need some additional school sites in town,so at this point we're still moving ahead with the other because this is really the first we've heard that they've got actually got a site," Chipman says. "So we haven't had an opportunity to sit down with trustees and do much with it, but at this point a decision's been made and whether or not there'll be a need to review that will be a decision the trustees have to wrestle with."

HE says the division received one or two days notice that something was brewing before the Town of Okotoks released the land purchase information to the public and he says they appreciate the fact the town recognizes there's a need for school sites but there hasn't been time to sit down with trustees and discuss it yet.

Plus, he says, Okotoks needs more than just one school.

"When you look at the new Westmount school, when you look at Percey Pegler and you look at Dr. Morris Gibson, all those schools are 85, 95, 100- per cent capacity," he says. "We need another K-to-9 or similar configuration school right away, especially when you look at what's coming down as far as annexation and the continued growth that everybody anticipates there, so we need a K-to-9 and we certainly need a high school."

He says in the meantime they're moving ahead with plans for the high school at the field house site.