With repairs needed to the roofs of the portable classrooms at Connaught School, the Living Sky School Division board has held a summer-break meeting to move the project forward as soon as possible.
The concern was the project could necessitate finding alternate classroom space if repairs couldn't be completed for the opening of the coming school year.
The board met July 2 to approve going to tender on the repairs to Connaught portables.
Chief Financial Officer Lonny Darroch said Wednesday, "The hope is that the school will be substantially ready by the fall."
The final report from the engineer suggested two options for repair, either to replace the original glulam beam structure or to use engineered wood joists instead.Darroch said the board decided to go with the engineered wood joists solution as this would allow for the work to be completed in a much shorter time frame.
"With the study already completed by the engineer, we hope to be able to go to tender soon," he said.
Darrock said the division has received confirmation that its application to the Emergent Funding Program has been approved by the provincial ministry of education, which will mean the ministry will cost share the project at 65 per cent. Thirty-five per cent of the cost will be coming from division reserves.
At their meeting last week, the board also awarded the tender for renovations to North Battleford Comprehensive High School to accommodate Grade 7s in 2015. The tender was awarded to Cormode and Dickson Construction Ltd. with a net base bid of $3,525,812, said Darroch.
The project includes the construction of a gym within the footprint of the existing school, which will account for the majority of the cost.
Cormode and Dickson Construction is a full service general contractor based in western Canada. The company has offices in Moose Jaw and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan and in Edmonton, Calgary and Fort McMurray, Alta., as well as in British Columbia, Ontario and the Yukon.
It has been in business since 1962. Other projects by Cormode and Dickson in North Battleford include Splish Splash Auto and Pet Wash Ltd. and Murphy Oil, formerly located across from Walmart where a new Co-op gas bar is being constructed.
