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The option may be particularly relevant given a money-saving change in this year’s budget where the government will only fund school boards for up to 45 credits per student each year, down from 60 credits a year.

Edmonton Catholic superintendent Joan Carr said that change is anticipated to cost the district between $1.8 million and $2 million next year.

Several trustees questioned why a push to formalize a four-year approach was necessary, since hundreds of students across Alberta take a fourth or fifth year of high school already. The government will fund the education of anyone younger than 20 at the beginning of the school year.

Some students can’t stay in their community school and must go to alternative programs for a fourth or fifth year, administrators said.

“By not making it official, when a student does not complete in three years, it’s still easy to say, you still have the option of a fourth,” said Joe Naccarato, assistant superintendent of learning services for the district. “But they’re stigmatized already. They’re considered a ‘non-completer.’ And there’s a lot of self-doubt and stress when that happens,” he said.

Carr said one of her biggest regrets is not building the northeast Cardinal Collins school larger.

“It’s bursting at the seams, and we know there’s tremendous potential for many other students who want to be there, who can’t be there,” Carr said.

The school, in the Clareview Recreation Centre, is for fourth- and fifth-year high school students and English language learners. The district has a second such school in west Edmonton on its wish list of future school construction.