(File photo/northeastNOW)

By Cam Lee

Portable classrooms

Portable classrooms coming to Lanigan, Humboldt this fall

Jan 9, 2026 | 9:53 AM

The Horizon School Division is receiving two relocatable classrooms in the province.

The provincial government announced this week that they would invest $28.5 million in the 2025-26 Relocatable Classroom Program for 39 new classrooms. Two existing rooms will also be moved.

Classrooms will be installed over the summer and ready for students in the fall.

Horizon will use the relocatable classrooms for Humboldt Public School (HPS) and Lanigan School.

Education Minister Everett Hindley said the program helps address space pressures by adding classrooms where they are needed most.

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“This helps us respond to enrolment growth and gives school divisions flexibility to manage local pressures,” Hindley said.

Horizon Director of Education Kevin Garinger said they have used the portable program over the past few years, and they are thankful for the chance to use the classrooms.

“We’re looking forward to getting that portable. It will really go a long way in supporting the numbers that are at Lanigan School,” Garinger said. “The school was built for about 400 students and we’re right around those numbers, and it’s tight.”

The portable classroom at Humboldt Public School is also due to higher enrolment numbers than anticipated, according to Garinger. He said that school is also close to having 400 students, and the school was originally built to serve about 350.

“Even with this portable [in Humboldt], we’re going to be at over 100 per cent capacity, so we’re actually looking at some other options with the government because one of the other challenges of course is washroom space,” said Garinger. “We really need to consider this plan in a more global way so we’re looking forward to our conversations with the Ministry around that.”

Garinger said they’re having to look at potentially expanding to three Kindergarten classrooms at HPS. The growth in student numbers in both Humboldt and Lanigan is a great thing, according to Garinger, but there are other challenges, and the division and government will discuss options outside of portable classrooms.

The new Lanigan School just opened last year and is already at capacity. When asked about that, Garinger said the division knew that the numbers would be tight, but the project was approved in 2020 when enrolment wasn’t as high.

“We planned that school so that it could expand…through the use of portables and that is the way that we’ll move it forward,” explained Garinger. “Our budget was very finite in terms of being able to manage that construction project, but we planned with the ability to put on portables and we’re starting that this year.”

Garinger said they knew that student growth would happen with the various mining and manufacturing developments in the area, but added that “it’s hard to put dollars in place when there’s nothing concrete.”

The division asked for the classrooms in the spring of 2025, and Garinger thanked the government and the Ministry of Education for the quick response to their need for more classrooms.

Other portable classrooms will go to schools in Prince Albert, Regina, Saskatoon, Blaine Lake, Clavet, Corman Park, and Swift Current.

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cam.lee@pattisonmedia.com