All elementary schools in the Prince Albert Roman Catholic School Division will receive a $50,000 grant from the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association.
The funds will be used to upgrade playground equipment at St. Catherine Community School, St. John Community School, St. Francis School and St. Michael Community School.
Director of education Lorel Trumier updated the board on the projects during their regular meeting on Feb. 23.
“When you look at it, we have a matching grant of $50,000 for six of our schools. That’s over $300,000 of grants, so we’re extremely grateful that we were successful in all of our elementary schools,” Trumier said.
The projects at Ecole Holy Cross and Ecole St. Anne have already been completed and the funds will be used to offset money invested by the School Community Council (SCC).
Trumier said construction on the other four projects will continue this summer.
“We had a very competitive process and response from the RFP with approximately seven vendors putting information in and projects to consider,” Trumier said.
The playground supplier for St. John Community Scholl is 1Stop Playgrounds. The supplier for St. Michael Community School, St. Francis School and St. Catherine is Blue MP/Madera who completed the previous two projects.
In November, the division announced that the already completed project at Ecole St. Anne School also received $50,000 in funding from the program. Eligible project expenses incurred on or after April 1 were eligible to apply to receive the matching funding.
On Sept. 9, 2025, the Province of Saskatchewan announced at $3.75 million dollar annual investment to enrich outdoor play spaces. Parks, Culture and Sport Minster Alana Ross said at the time that the grant will be administered in partnership with Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association (SPRA).
Trumier said each school has a different story in terms of the use of the matching grant,
The schools have all been notified by the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association.
Trumier was pleased to see the SCC’s financial burden lessened after receiving the grant so they can put the money towards other projects.
Trumier said that Phase 2 is also in the works for one of the completed projects at Ecole Holy Cross.
“The SCC and the school are endeavouring to do another project this summer. They will not be eligible for this particular grant, but we just added another project for an RFP,” Trumier explained.
