The Foothills School Division didn't get the go ahead for a new high school in Okotoks Wednesday.

When education minister Adriana LaGrange announced 58 projects for the province, the division's request was only included in the School Planning Program.

Assistant Superintendent Drew Chipman says...well, it's something.

"We're a little disappointed for sure that we didn't get full approval, but it is the next step to us getting the final approval from the province," he says. "We'll receive additional funding dollars to work on the proposal, we're going to work with Alberta Education and Alberta infrastructure on finalizing how that best fits on the site and how we can move that forward."

The division had already received $100,000 for some pre-planning work but it's not known how much they'll get at this stage.

"I think what it means is it's moved up on their priority list, we asked the question 'does this mean it's automatically going to be approved?' and the answer was 'not at this point' but going through this step really helps us get that final approval."

It does move them up the queue which he calls good news.