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Asbestos removal planned at school

A Catholic school in Innisfail will require removal of asbestos as part of an extensive renovation project that gets underway next year.

A Catholic school in Innisfail will require removal of asbestos as part of an extensive renovation project that gets underway next year.

Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools will be upgrading the Grade 1 to 9 St. Marguerite Bourgeoys School.

Ken Jaeger, supervisor of support services for Red Deer Catholic, said that St. Marguerite will receive a library, a large gym and associated changerooms, a few extra classrooms, and repurposing existing space to have better administrative and career and technology studies (CTS).

This is a joint project involving Chinook’s Edge School Division, along with the Town of Innisfail and Red Deer County.

Chinook’s Edge has a high school and middle school on the site that Jaeger describes as a school campus.

St. Marguerite is housed within the Chinook’s Edge elementary school, John Wilson School.

“So there’s a large gymnasium at the high school where the town and the county have made a financial contribution for community access and upgraded facilities,” said Jaeger.

Chinook’s Edge is also creating some changes to classrooms and shifting grades between the schools so they can free up and give more school space to St. Marguerite.

“Two of these buildings are built in the 1950s and 1960s so asbestos was a common construction material,” said Jaeger.

It was basically used in insulation and some floor tiles may contain it.

Asbestos is carcinogenic when airborne. Some of it will be removed as part of construction so a company will be hired to properly remove it, said Jaeger.

Parents will receive letters when it’s time to remove this asbestos, he added.

Jaeger said that construction is proceeding well at Father Henri Voisin School in Clearview Ridge.

It’s part of the public-private partnership projects that are being built as part of a provincial government bundle. It will open in September 2014.

The school district has also received government approval for two modular classrooms to be put in place for Sept. 1 at Holy Trinity School.

ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com