One of Calgary's charter schools is in need of an expansion — and they can't seem to get the ball rolling with the Alberta government for funding. The Alberta Classical Academy (ACA), at the Calgary Currie Barracks Campus (CCBC), teaches a liberal arts education to students in grades K-9.The CCBC started in 2023 in response to high parent demand by parents for the ACA program."Our mission is to provide students with the knowledge, habits, and virtues befitting free citizens. Among our unique program features are: a low-tech, smartphone-free environment; mandatory Latin beginning in Grade 5; a "great books" and world history curriculum, an emphasis on cultivating virtue, and much more," stated Caylan Ford, founder and chief development officer at the ACA. .This charter school is completely publicly funded and as Colleen Parks, Superintendent of the Calgary Classical Academy, tells the Western Standard, this means: "We are publicly funded, we don't charge tuition, and we are accountable for all the same government metrics that all other public schools are."The CCBC is currently experiencing an extremely high demand — without room to accept new students.To do so, they would have to expand their campus, which they currently do not have the money to do. "That's part of our problem, we're seeing our wait lists in the thousands," stated Parks.CCBC has a total of 700 students.The exact number of students who applied for the school last year was 2,500, while only 200 new students were admitted due to the limited amount of space."Our experience highlights the enormous latent demand for school choice, and specifically for classical education," stated Ford.Due to the high demand, the current building at CCBC — a former military barracks building which they completely remodeled — is "inadequate to accommodate our full program, and the campus was always intended to have multiple buildings," stated Ford..They do not even have a gymnasium for their students — because they have to remodel the buildings next to the school that are a part of the former military barracks."Not having a gym has probably been the greatest strain, both on staff and our students," stated Parks."Not having a gym loses about two weeks of instructional time per year, and what they're doing is they're being bused to a local gym offsite at a nearby community center, and that obviously presents safety issues. ""Unfortunately, we have a very vibrant sports program, and we have very competitive sports teams that have won many medals in a very short period of time."."But those student athletes have to walk to that gym facility because there's no bussing available after hours, and financially, we can't provide that."They've submitted a request to the government for more money to fund the expansion of the campus, but their request has gone unanswered.Moreover, "Since our population is on track to grow to 1,400 students at this site, we will also be short by about 25 classrooms," pointed out Ford."Our ask to the government is to fund the completion of this campus in the next budget cycle, including the construction of a gymnasium, science labs, and CTS labs."."Our students shouldn't have to go four years without access to a gym or basic school amenities."Now parents at the school are taking action."We communicated with our stakeholders, that we're kind of in a place where this may not happen [expansion]," stated Parks"And our parents, of course, jumped to action, and I understand there's an appeal, and there's signatures, and I now know there's a group of students in the classroom who are writing letters to the government."However, the parents actions are separate from the school's, and "the ACA is not part of that.".The Western Standard reached out to the Minister of Education, Demetrios Nicolaides' office, which stated they had received the request.Regarding whether they will grant the school's request they stated the following:"All funding decisions are made public when the budget is tabled in the legislature in late February, no comments regarding the budget will be made before that time.”
