Two Sherwood Park schools are closing this fall. One is taking their place.
Forest Grove School opens August 31 on Fir Street just east of the existing Sherwood Heights Junior High replacing both Sherwood Heights Junior High and École Campbelltown. Students from both schools will move into the new building together in September, forming an entirely new school community under a name chosen specifically because neither school's identity would carry forward alone.
The three-storey, $53 million facility was project-managed by Alberta Infrastructure and built for Elk Island Public Schools. It opens with capacity for 1,015 students across Kindergarten to Grade 9. Construction began in July 2024 and the project supported more than 300 jobs.
What programs are moving in
Forest Grove School offers French immersion from Kindergarten to Grade 6 the program currently running out of École Campbelltown and both English and French immersion streams in Grades 7 through 9, continuing what Sherwood Heights Junior High has offered. The designated attendance area remains unchanged from both existing schools, meaning no catchment changes for current families.
Why this took so long
The replacement project has been on EIPS's priority list since at least 2019, when Sherwood Heights Junior High topped the division's three-year capital plan. The building was aging. École Campbelltown, operating as a standalone French immersion elementary, needed a permanent facility that matched where enrollment in the area was heading. Combining both into a single modern replacement made more practical and financial sense than rebuilding them separately.
Construction funding was announced in March 2023. Groundbreaking happened in September 2024. The project had been sitting on the provincial capital list for years before that approval not unusual for a pipeline that had become severely backlogged as Alberta's population grew faster than its school infrastructure.
The name and what's behind it
EIPS gathered input from students, families, staff, and community members in fall 2024 on what the new school should be called. The board approved Forest Grove School on December 19, 2024.
The choice reflects the neighbourhood's naming convention streets in the area are named after trees and a deliberate decision not to carry either school's existing identity into the new building. The reasoning was direct: two distinct school communities were merging into one, and a fresh name gave students and staff the chance to build something new rather than inherit someone else's culture.
"Because the replacement school will be the academic home for two existing schools, and students attending will form an entirely new school community, the Board of Trustees felt an entirely brand-new name would help students and staff craft their own unique identity and culture," said then-EIPS board chair Cathy Allen at the time of the announcement. The school's own website launched at forestgroveschool.ca in January 2026.
What the building looks like
Forest Grove School is built around five learning communities clusters of classrooms organized around open-concept common areas designed for flexible, collaborative instruction. The three-storey building is fully accessible. Recent construction updates from EIPS show completed brickwork on the east side, finished gymnasium painting, a front entrance taking shape, and a gathering staircase inside a central communal space that anchors the school's design philosophy.
Over the coming months, Elk Island Public Schools will prepare classrooms, shared spaces, and specialized learning areas before the August 31 opening.
"Forest Grove School will become an important part of the Sherwood Park community, providing students with leading-edge learning spaces for generations to come," said current EIPS board chair Colleen Holowaychuk.
Part of Alberta's broader school build
Forest Grove is one of 12 schools expected to open across Alberta in the 2026-27 fiscal year. It sits within the province's Schools Now program an $8.6 billion commitment to build and modernize more than 100 schools and create more than 200,000 new and updated student spaces across Alberta by 2031-32. Budget 2026 put $1.4 billion into school infrastructure this year, supporting an estimated 7,800 jobs provincewide.
For families with questions about registration, catchment boundaries, or transition details for the fall, information is available at eips.ca or at forestgroveschool.ca.
Sources:
Government of Alberta news release — New school coming to Sherwood Park, May 26, 2026 (alberta.ca)
Government of Alberta — Schools Now program page (alberta.ca/schools-now)
Elk Island Public Schools — Forest Grove School project page (eips.ca)
Elk Island Public Schools — EIPS Board Approves New Name of Replacement School in Sherwood Heights, December 19, 2024 (eips.ca)
