The buildings owned by the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division will be undergoing a review. Facilities Committee chair and rural trustee Bill Yeaman outlined progress on the facility renewal process in the division on Monday. He said the division has contracted Prince Albert architectural firm AODBT to provide an intensive review of all facilities.
“It fits with what the board has been doing in assessing and analyzing their facilities for depth of information,” education director Robert Bratvold said. “The board will hopefully have that (first phase) by summer.”
Yeaman said the Facilities committee met on Nov. 22 and discussed AODBT. The process involves three phases with five steps in each phase.
“They gather information on the facilities, (and) they go to the site for an on-site facility assessment,” Yeaman explained. “They will do one for all of our schools and spend some time in there. They work on all of the positives in the schools first rather than the negative. They give out conceptual plans for each school. They use the SCCs and other groups to finalize this plan.”
The representatives come to each school and look at various aspects of the school and how they operate.
The external review will include structural and maintenance analysis as well as site visits and discussions with school teams about programming needs and use of space.
Yeaman explained that the first phase would include the 10 rural schools north of Prince Albert. The other phases include rural schools to the south and schools in the City of Prince Albert. Because of the size, Carlton will take more time than most. The analysis will provide a package of information on every school.
“It will give us really good data to make some great decisions,” Yeaman said.
“I was really impressed because the program will look at how the schools will look in the 21st Century,” he added.
In a press release, the division touted Superintendent Mike Hurd and the maintenance team under as known and respected around the province for their systematic and careful care of facilities. The division views this review as part of that work.
“We are not doing a review because we are worried about the state of our buildings but (because) it will really help us to do a plan,” Bratvold said.
Bratvold explained that the level of detail will help provide future direction for Hurd and his planning the Preventative Maintenance Renewal (PMR) budget and regular maintenance budget. It will also allow the board to look into the future 20 years and know what to expect in terms of demands on budgets and facilities decisions.
“So this will provide lots of really good information to help inform those decisions,” Bratvold said.
