The North East School Division (NESD) is planning for the future on two large comprehensive high schools in the division.
During the board of education’s regular meeting on May 27, the board moved ahead with plans at both LP Miller Comprehensive School and Melfort and Unit Comprehensive Collegiate (MUCC) to upgrade their Practical Applied Arts programs.
That includes everything from cosmetology, to food services, to welding, to machining, to mechanics and everything in between, director of education Stacy Lair said.
A portion of this work included hiring Saskatchewan Education Leadership Unit (SELU) to provide reports for each school that centred on the practical and applied arts (PAA) programming. The report will be completed in June and has a focus on the future needs of the students in the area of PAA.
“We’re going to align our future investments and opportunities with the recommendations from the report,” Lair explained. “We’ll work alongside the school and utilize that report to look at workforce needs and emerging technology so we can best match our facility with the interest and needs of students in their career paths.”
In a report from CFO Wanda McLeod, administration recommended a one-time gain of $323,000 from the sale of the Nipawin bus shop be invested directly into student learning by establishing internally restricted reserve for practical and applied arts equipment at those two sites.
“We’re hoping that approach lets us preserve the funding until the review is complete, (and) we have that report so we’re able to correctly apply those funds in the best way that we can between those two buildings,” Lair said.
The $323,0000 will be placed in the unrestricted accumulated surplus.
Lair said the provincial government invested a “significant amount of funding” into floor space and equipment when the schools were first established. However, she said some of that equipment is now out of date and needs to be replaced.
“It’s not up to trade standards in many ways,” she explained. “While we provide decentralized funding to schools to keep equipment up to date and maintained, it doesn’t provide them with enough funding to completely renew that equipment. To completely replace it is very expensive.”
She said that the just over $100,000 investment per school still will not accomplish everything, but it’s a good start.
“It’s a good step to align it strategically with that report,” Lair said.
Lair explained that the investment is also practical because students are choosing careers in the trades more often.
“It has a variety of really rich and in-demand career pathways, and we also know that those classes and courses leave students with significant amounts of transferable skills and are really engaging for our students as well,” Lair said.
Lair said the classes are in high demand at both schools, as students see promising career opportunities in them.
“I think it’s often a disservice that we don’t have enough practical and applied art programming throughout the school division,” she said. “This is a way to look at those two facilities that haven’t been able to keep up with their capital costs, their equipment costs and help infuse some dollars for them to do that.”
NESD invests after gain from sale of Tisdale bus shop
NESD made the one-time financial gain by consolidating the bus shop in Tisdale, and selling the former bus shop in Nipawin. Lair said they worked on the sale throughout the school year
She said combining the bus facility to one site in Tisdale helped centralize operations across the school division.
She said the facility in Nipawin also didn’t have the lift capabilities or hoists needed to do some repair work. They were also concerns about safety, as the Nipawin shop had only one mechanic, and the NESD didn’t want that person working alone in case something went wrong.
At the same meeting the board of education approved their three-year PMR plan and budget. The plan covers the years 2027 to 2030. Lair said that the $2.5 million approved spending exceeded the approved annual funding slightly.
“We are required to approve a rolling three-year preventative maintenance and renewal submission to the ministry,” she said. “What is on the ’26-27 list is what we plan and budget and take care of. The aspects of the other years on that list then are juggled around a little bit. They come to fruition based on urgent need.”
PMR plans are set for three years in advance but amendments can be made as projects arise. Lair said that they were already looking at additions to the list because of accumulated PMR money that can be added to 2026-2027.
“When we get that funding for the ministry, sometimes we intentionally save part of it year after year to be able to tackle some of our bigger and more significant projects,” Lair said.
The list is lengthy and includes schools across the division. Projects on the 2025-2026 list include Naicam School, MUCC, LP Miller, Central Park Elementary in Nipawin, Tisdale Elementary, Wagner Elementary in Nipawin, White Fox School and William Mason School among others.
“There’s accessibility improvements, classroom and learning spaces renovations, roofing projects, who are typically always on the list, building system upgrades, (and) some renovations to support some student programming,’ Lair explained.
“I think it’s exciting to share some details, so communities know what to expect in terms of renovations and what’s coming up in their community and their schools,” Lair said.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
