Construction will soon get underway at a campus of Innisfail schools.
Binder Construction was chosen to oversee the multi-phase project of Chinook’s Edge School division schools — École John Wilson Elementary, École Innisfail Middle, and École Innisfail High — along with St. Marguerite Bourgeoys School from Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools. St. Marguerite is housed within the Chinook’s Edge’s John Wilson.
The biggest part of the project will be a new gym and bus turn-around.
At the height of the work, Binder is expecting 30 workers, including trades and consultants, to be on site.
Dale Munro, site superintendent for Binder, said he understands the community has been waiting a long time for this.
“First is the construction of the new gym, so people will see fencing going up and the parking lot filled with construction trailers by next week,” said Munro in a news release.
Planning took several years.
As the result of a study, Chinook’s Edge middle school will become a Grade 5 to 8 school, while the high school will change to Grade 9 to 12 at the start of the 2013-14 school year.
Jay Steeves, principal of École Innisfail Middle School, said a joint use agreement with the Town of Innisfail will see part of the school involve community-wide use.
“Over the years, we’d love to see strong collaboration with community groups, particularly on ways to deliver great programming in this exciting new gym,” said Steeves.
The $7-million project is slated to be done in December. Besides provincial monies, the Town of Innisfail gave $700,000, Red Deer County gave $300,000 and Chinook’s Edge gave $1.27 million.
Wayne Pineau, principal of École Innisfail High, said sections of the school will be blocked off for the least disruption.
“We are so excited to get this going, because we know in the end it will be a really amazing facility for our students and for the community. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to see something like this take shape.”