MELFORT — After looking at the costs of building two permanent classrooms at Melfort’s Maude Burke Elementary, the North East School Division has decided to go ahead with the project.
The division was originally looking at spending around $800,000 for two portables. At its April 24 meeting, the board voted to spend $660,000 plus taxes to build the classrooms.
“It looks like, when we’ve gone to tender here, that was a good decision because we might come in under $800,000 for permanent structures,” said Don Rempel, the division’s director of education.
The goal will be to have the classrooms complete as soon as possible. Once that’s done, students will be able to move out of the library, which is currently being used as a classroom.
The elementary school was built in a manner to be easily expandable. Rempel said that should continue to be the case after adding the two classrooms.
“You could probably still add on an additional portables and/or new construction off the end if you had to.”
The director of education said they might have to examine building regulations before doing something like that.
