Red Deer Public Schools is making plans for what it wants to do with River Glen School in Red Deer’s Waskasoo neighbourhood once the district acquires it from Chinook’s Edge School Division.
The transfer is slated for sometime later this year.
Cody McClintock, associate superintendent with Red Deer Public, said they hope to be able to get into the building by the summer to start renovations, which will continue into the fall.
“We’d like to look at making the building management system consistent with the rest of our systems so we can remotely control heat and stuff like that in the building and also be able to monitor it remotely,” he said.
They will also eventually re-evaluate River Glen’s security and phone systems and discuss the possibility of a card access model for increased safety, he said.
Sections of the school’s roof need to be redone and the district has already begun talks with a roofing consultant.
“We’ve been able to inspect the roof and believe that will be one of our top priorities,” McClintock said.
The work on River Glen calls for $584,000 of the $1.3 million Red Deer Public receives from the province yearly under the infrastructure maintenance renewal program.
The district also put aside $30,000 from its own facility maintenance plan for upcoming River Glen projects.
The plans to relocate students of the Gateway Christian School Alternative Program in Red Deer in September to River Glen are still a green light, according to McClintock.
Meanwhile, the current River Glen students will move to various other Chinook’s Edge schools such as the new Penhold Crossing Secondary School, Jessie Duncan, Poplar Ridge, and schools in Sylvan Lake, Delburne and Innisfail.
“It is logical to move into a nice building like River Glen, more modern and up to date than the old downtown campus for Gateway,” McClintock said. “It’s also bigger and can accommodate the entire Gateway program, which is currently split between two locations, the downtown and Pines campuses.”
Gateway has 550 students and is continuing to grow each year, he added.
He noted River Glen, under a rural board, was also being under utilized in terms of numbers in the city.
“It’s a big job trying to get this all done, moving basically two schools to River Glen and still allowing Chinook’s Edge time to get all of their stuff out. Time will be one of the biggest challenges.”
The school transfer process is moving slowly due to Chinook’s Edge own plans to subdivide its land, with some land potentially slated for a subdivision development and other parcels to go to the city.
“We’re continuing to work with Chinook’s Edge and waiting while they work through that,” McClintock said.
No one at Chinook’s Edge was available for comment.
River Glen, a kindergarten to Grade 12 school, opened in 1960.
rfrancoeur@www.reddeeradvocate.com