Edmonton Islamic Academy fundraising for new school campus

This spring, the Edmonton Islamic Academy plans to break ground on a new campus for elementary students. 

The academy has already purchased and prepared the land they need for the new campus.

The school's prinicipal, Abraham Abougouche, said the academy is expecting a zoning permit from the city in the coming weeks that would rezone the commercial property into an institutional educational property. 

After the property has received its zoning permit, the school will request permission from Alberta Education to open a new school. 

Construction is expected to start this spring. 

Abougouche said the design for the elementary school is inspired by Islamic architecture with classrooms facing Mecca, the holy city in Saudi Arabia. The school will have scriptures on the walls, small gardens and sitting areas. 

The project is estimated to cost about $80 million and aims to be open for the September 2025 term. 

The Academy is located on 127th Street in northwest Edmonton. The new campus is proposed to be about three minutes away on 151st Avenue.

According to Statistics Canada's 2021 census of population, 83,015 people in Edmonton identify as Muslim. 

With the growing Muslim population, Abougouche said he has seen the need for more space over the past few years.

The academy is a K-12 and has a population of over 2,000 students.

"There's a strong demand for increased classrooms and more faith-based education, in particular, Islamic education here in Edmonton," Abougouche said. 

"As the population grows here in Edmonton, so does the community. And with more students there are more needs."

The school's waitlist has names of over 1,000 students and more are added to it daily.