Edmonton Public School Board votes to remove Autism Centre of Excellence from priorities
Posted April 15, 2026 8:38 am.
Hopes for a school specifically for Edmonton kids with autism have faded away for now.
The Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) voted narrowly 5-3 to remove the proposed Autism Centre for Excellence (ACE) from a new three-year capital plan to be submitted to the provincial government.
The school was in the planning stage with funds previously set aside by the province in the 2024 budget. But over the last year, the scope of the project has changed from when it was first talked about in 2025.
BACKGROUND: ‘Autism Centre of Excellence School’ in early planning stages for Edmonton Public Schools
A new report for EPSB says ACE would serve 106 students out of the estimated 3,000 kids with autism, less than half of the original 225 expected last year. The report also anticipates it would cost $25 million with no timeline for construction. It was believed the school would have been built in the north end.
This all raised the eyebrows of Sarah Doll, trustee for Ward E in west Edmonton, who kickstarted the debate by proposing to approve the plan as long as ACE was removed from the priorities list.
“I know that lots of parents would want this. I think we really need to focus in on how we support our students and we need to consider every single student in the division when we talk about the fiscal situation with this, the space situation with this, and the reason it would be seen as a need,” said Doll.
Other trustees joined in to support the motion right away, including trustees Holly Nichol and Nickela Anderson.
“We’re in a space crisis,” said Nichol, who represents northwest Edmonton in Ward C.
“We could build a school for $33 million that’s going to accommodate 650 students. That is something that’s weighing very heavily on my mind when we have families who have to enter into lottery systems, we have students who are on extremely long bus rides.”
“We have to be really, really careful about how we lump our students with diverse needs. We can’t pull them into one bucket because they’re not,” added Anderson, of Ward D.
Among the trustees in staunch opposition to removing the school was Julie Kusiek, who was public board chair last term.
“That’s 106 lives changed,” said Kusiek.
“We are building capacity within our division that serves not only those 106 students, but 125,000 students across all of Edmonton. We are building capacity for staff across the division through this. I do believe that if we don’t offer this, it’s going to be offered through charters and it’s going to be offered through privates.”
EPSB ultimately voted 5-3 in favour of removing ACE from the capital plan. Trustees Doll, Anderson, Nichol, Melanie Hoffman, and Chair Saadiq Sumar were in favour. Trustees Kusiek, Sherri O’Keefe, and Vice Chair Linda Lindsay voted against.
Trustee Jan Sawyer was not in attendance.
Sumar, who says he took his time before deciding how he was going to vote, also says the uniqueness of this project means it might need more time to develop and collect feedback before possibly being revived.
“Maybe the process needs to look a bit different in terms of what that engagement looks like and when that happens,” Sumar told reporters after the meeting.
Could Edmonton see this project come back to EPSB’s priorities? Sumar says that would be up to the board in the future.
