Schools are always in need of maintenance and the Prince Albert Catholic School Division has an ability to stay ahead of these with the Preventative Maintenance and Renewal (PMR) Plan.
At their meeting on Monday, May 25 the board approved the three-year (fiscal years 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-205) PMR projects list.
“The Preventative Maintenance and Renewal plan is very much a measured approach to articulating what the jobs are that we need to get done to our buildings and our facilities. We do have flexibility within the plan,” director of education Lorel Trumier said.
During the meeting trustee Darryl Sande noticed that St. Francis had a gymnasium floor replacement listed on the plan. This project has already been completed after a water main break in 2019 and was removed by an amendment before the plan was approved.
“So now we will have an opportunity to assess the future projects that are articulated and seek to finish an additional one instead,” Trumier said.
The entire budget in the three year plan totals $779,416.
The three-year plan includes project such as removing and replacing damaged bricks on the south wall of St. John and separate gym floor projects at St. Michael and St. John in the next series of projects.
“It’s a very measured approach, what it does is it highlights areas of concern and need in our system,” she explained.
According to Trumier one of the best examples of how the PMR budget works is school roofs which can be identified as a future need but moved to another time as the need arises.
“However we know that sometimes some roofs may experience heavy snow loads and where we will have to move that project up a couple of years and then we are able to shift a different one back because it wasn’t as necessary. And it allows us that opportunity to prioritize and shift them as the need calls upon and it guarantees that we have those dollars as it is earmarked dollars we are not able to spend them in other categories for those kinds of tasks,” Trumier said.
One example of this happening is the recently approved amendment to add the roof at St. Francis which was added this year as an amendment. One project listed in 2024-2025 portion of the plan is a roofing project at St. John.
The plan is administration’s current best estimate of anticipated projects, associated costs and potential timing. The plan is always subject to change as events occur in the future.
Should new projects arise that aren’t included, administration will request an amendment to the plan. For example, last March there were a number of amendments for costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The exercise of developing the PMR budget is a credit to the entire operation according to Trumier.
“I think our buildings are in really great condition and I credit the management, our school based administration, our facilities manager Dan Gareau and the team of people here that support the operation of the facilities because we have got really nice facilities,” she said.
All PMR plans must be approved by the board and submitted to the Ministry of Education.
