Schools are filling up in Steinbach as student numbers continue to climb

The Hanover School Board continues to work on plans to handle growing enrollment, particularly at schools in Steinbach. 

“As you know, we're working on building a new early years school, K-4, right now,” says Finance Committee Chair Ron Falk. “And our middle schools, the two we have in town, Stonybrook and Clearspring are both pretty full. In both cases, we have just over 600 in each school.” 

He says the warm winter weather has been good for construction of the new school, going up on the west edge of Steinbach, off McKenzie Avenue. 

“We have very good weather for all sorts of construction and with the school project, I would say we're very close to being on target there. It's going well. No hiccups there really to speak of as far as the building is concerned.” 

The Building Committee will soon have another meeting to go over the progress of the new school, which is scheduled to open in 2025. 

“At our upcoming meeting, the school name is certainly going to be on the agenda,” says Falk. “That's something in the very near future that we will be coming to terms with and solidifying that.” 

He notes they are also keeping a close eye on student numbers at the Steinbach Regional Secondary School. 

“The SRSS is a very, very large school, as we know it’s the largest in the province, both square footage and population and we can't continue in that direction. We need to plan for alternatives there. And so those are always long-term projections and certainly something the board is working on.” 

There are around 2,000 students attending the SRSS, which has capacity for 2,200 students. 

For the upcoming school year, the Hanover School Board approved funding to add two more bus runs and the purchase of four new buses. 

Falk also says Hanover is hiring an additional 16.5 teachers to accommodate projected enrollment increases this fall.