The Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division’s Cree Bilingual School is having to split to two locations because there are just too many students for one site. Board Chair Diane Boyko says a new building on the former Sion Middle School site on Grosvenor Avenue is what they are advocating for with the provincial government. It’s the Division’s highest priority for capital projects, and Boyko hopes the province will announce funding so they can get started, but usually these types of announcements come with the province’s budget in the spring. Boyko expects well over 575 students in the St. Frances Cree Bilingual School in the fall. Right now they have 11 classrooms and 14 portables. She explains that space is so limited that one room is a band room, a resource storage room and a computer lab all in one. It’s also a safety issue with challenges around washroom access, available playground space, and student transitions through the hallway during breaks. The answer for the immediate future is to have Pre-kindergarten to Grade 5 students at the current McPherson Avenue site and Grade 6 to 8 at the Bateman Crescent site, which is the former St. Patrick School.  The Chair of Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools believes that St. Frances Cree Bilingual School is the largest Cree bilingual program in all of Canada.