Thousands of students across Calgary returned to school Monday to kick off the 2026/27 school year. “It’s amazing, the kids are so excited. It’s always nice to start the new year, especially with over 2,000 students coming into St. Francis,” said Marilyn Nasse, the principal at St. Francis High School. “It’s an exciting day. I know lots of students and parents are happy to have their children back at school, and we’re excited to have them,” added Ranchlands School Principal Steve Wigglesworth. Excitement is particularly high at Evanston Heights — a brand new middle school that is welcoming around 400 students. It’s one of several schools slated to open in Calgary in the near future, the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) says. “We have 21 new school projects that are being built,” said CBE chief superintendent of schools Joanne Pitman. The new academic year marks a fresh start from last year, which saw a nearly month-long, province-wide strike among teachers in last October. Classroom sizes and staff shortages were among chief concerns for educators. CBE and the Calgary Catholic School District (CSSD) hopes those challenges won’t be quite as prominent, with each board completing a hiring spree over the summer. This includes more than 475 teachers at CBE, Pitman said, while chief superintendent of CSSD Jessica Thomas says that board has added more than 300 educators. At Ranchland School, Wigglesworth says those new hires renewed teachers’ optimism. “(Teachers are) looking forward to being able to have more time with their students, so those class size changes is a significant improvement for sure,” he said. But the leader the Alberta Teachers Association says that optimism for him is more cautious, as there are still significant concerns about large class sizes and staff shortages among some members. “The same issues that you saw teachers go on strike for last year are the same issues that we have coming into this school year as well,” Schilling said. “We’re seeing more complex needs than we’ve ever seen before in the past.” He added, however, that he was happy to see the province add complexity teams to schools, but that still doesn’t fully address what teachers need. “You can’t neglect underfunding for a decade, like government did with the schools within Alberta, and expect one or two announcements in the spring to make everything right,” he said. Both CBE and CSSD report roughly a one per cent increase in student growth year over year. That figure is steady and expected, but it still creates challenges when managing class sizes, according to administrators. “We will have our full classrooms, we will be in need of more teachers and we will continue to foster and grow in all of those areas to ensure we are meeting all the needs of all of our students,” said Thomas. Despite lingering concerns from last year’s strike, students, families and school staff are hopeful the new school year brings a smoother ride. “I’m looking forward to having a full year of school instead of taking breaks,” said Robina Mumtez, whose children attend Evanston Heights.
