New roofs, new boilers and extra modulars are among the fix-ups, renovations and additions to schools around Central Alberta this summer.
In the Red Deer Public School District, two modular classrooms at Mattie McCullough Elementary School, two modulars at Mountview Elementary School and one modular at G.W. Smith Elementary School will be added, costing around $200,000 for each modular and $600,000 of work to install them, said Darren Skrepnyk, director of facilities at the school district.
Red Deer Public schools on the northside will be renovated as part of a shift into kindergarten to Grade 8 facilities at Glendale, Normandeau and G.H. Dawe. Glendale School will have four bathroom modernizations, as well as a kindergarten bathroom added, and three science labs will be turned into classrooms.
The finishing touches are being completed at G.H. Dawe School. The two-year modernization cost around $9 million and included the entire school building being gutted and built up, along with a new gym on the north end, three new classes on the east side, and the main office moving to the front of the building.
The last few jobs as part of the modernization at Aspen Heights Elementary School — a $3.5-million project that took a year and a half to complete — are also finishing up.
Around $600,000 in partial roof replacements will be done at Annie L. Gaetz Elementary, Oriole Park Elementary School, West Park Middle School and Aspen Heights Elementary School, Skrepnyk said. The fibre optic cable at Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School will be upgraded to improve the Internet connection and the sewer line will be replaced. Two boilers will be replaced at G.W. Smith Elementary School.
Red Deer Public received around $1.6 million in infrastructure maintenance renewal funding each of the last two years, with additional funding coming from past capital projects.
Darrel Dyvig, director of facility services with Chinook’s Edge School Division, said the division has received around $1.8 million in infrastructure maintenance renewal funding in each of the past two years through the provincial government.
Bowden Grandview, Cremona, Innisfail Middle and High School, H.J. Cody School in Sylvan Lake, River Valley School in Sundre and Steffie Woima School in Sylvan Lake will be among the schools to have camera systems and alarms installed. The division also has plans to upgrade its entire phone system over the next three years at a cost of around $300,000.
A $7-million modernization at C.P. Blakely School in Sylvan Lake, which has included updating of mechanical and electrical systems and the addition of a new wing, is nearing completion. Work on the new Olds High School in the Ralph Klein Centre on the Community Learning Campus is also almost wrapped up.
Around $500,000 worth of roofing will be done at schools in Bowden, Cremona, Spruce View and Hugh Sutherland In Carstairs. Lifts and barrier-free washrooms will be installed at Innisfail High School and Jessie Duncan School in Penhold. The main entrance and main hallway will be upgraded at Penhold School.
“This is the busy season for us,” said Dyvig. “We’re catching up a little bit from previous years.”
The Red Deer Catholic Regional School Division will install new roofs on St. Teresa of Avila and Camille J. Lerouge School, said Ken Jaeger, supervisor-support services with the division.
Holy Trinity students will move into a temporary location in downtown Olds at 4905 50th avenue, where the division is leasing space for the first five months or so of the next school year. The school is under construction now, with completion expected by early 2011.
Jaeger said otherwise there are minor things being fixed at most schools. The funding level has remained the same for the division for maintenance renewal projects for component replacement at around $900,000 this year.
sobrien@www.reddeeradvocate.com