St. John Community School will be receiving significant upgrades under the province’s Minor Capital Renewal Program.
The division was notified in early June that the Ministry of Education has approved proceeding with the renovations. This is the second year for the program. The budget has been approved for $2,100,000.
“I think that we feel like we’ve won a lottery for St John’s School this year,” education director Lorel Trumier said. “We’ve got lots of great things happening. The Minor Capital project will help us in the renewal of that facility, and we are going to have a daycare there opening this fall. In fact, they’re starting work now.”
Trumier and Chief Financial Officer Greg McEwan updated the board on the project during their regular meeting on June 12.
With the new daycare and the $2.1 million in renovations, Trumier expects to see a vibrant community.
“It’s going to feel good to have our school get that facelift that it needs in certain places and to make it better,” she said.
The project will include renovations to improve the function of bathrooms, kitchen and library. Other interior upgrades include the replacement of boilers, roof top units, windows, lighting, doors, flooring, wheelchair lift, furniture, equipment, relocatable classroom roofing and surveillance are also included in the project.
“Our kitchen right now was built in a time for the middle years where they were doing sewing, so the counters are really low right now,” Trumier explained. “It doesn’t mean we can’t use that room right now, but with this renewal we’re going to be able to change that to have a kitchen height cabinets and cupboards and make sure that we have the opportunity to run our nutrition program much more efficiently … and share it with the daycare and with ourselves.”
Exterior upgrades include building exterior and water drainage skylights and lighting.
This being the second year of the program and the division being one of the five selected was also a highlight for Trumier. All 27 school division were able to submit two possible projects.
“Each of them were able to submit to projects and to know that we were in out of 54 projects we were one of the five selected, so we feel like we won the lottery on that front for St. John and it’s good,” Trumier said.
The project will extend the lifespan of the school overall.
“We’re going to be able to do some pieces here that are reaching the time that we need to do it and it’ll be better for our productivity and our learning environment for our students,” Trumier said.
Administration has taken steps to schedule a meeting with the Ministry to begin project planning.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
