The Living Sky School Division board has decided any hopes for a new school for the north end of North Battleford are just "pie in the sky." At least any time in the near future.
Last week, the board replaced the request for a new school on its wish list of capital projects for the government to consider with a more realistic option to addressing school overcrowding - renovations and/or additions to the North Battleford Comprehensive High School.
The division has already moved the Grade 8s out of Battlefords elementary schools and into NBCHS, and plans to move the Grade 7s in 2015. Renovations have taken place and more are about to get underway at the high school, funded by school division reserves from past years because capital funding was not forthcoming from the provincial government.
For the last several years, the City of North Battleford, Living Sky and the Light of Christ Catholic School Divisions have had meetings about the possibility of a joint use school being built in the north end of the city.
The joint-use committee has never pursued many details, said Director of Education Randy Fox. As for the location, the north end, as pointed out by members of the board, is not necessarily the place where student population is expected to grow. However, he said the idea of rural students' bus journeys ending there, instead of transferring for further travel to Battleford, has always been a part of the conversation.
Lonny Darroch, division financial officer, said the process for applying for major capital projects (over a million dollars) is under review and an interim form has been developed (six pages instead of the previous one page), which will be used until the eventual "business case" format is in place.
This recent request by the government for boards of education to submit their top three capital project priorities is really just an information gathering process, he said. It doesn't necessarily mean anything will happen. (In the last seven years, government records show only one major capital project approved for Living Sky School Division.)
The board decided the other two items it would include on its wish list were: an addition to Hafford Central School to include an area where practical and applied arts programming can be taught, as well as an area for pre-K and daycare; and an addition to Cando Community School to include an area where practical and applied arts programming is taught.
Hafford has been renovated in recent years, however space is still tight since the renovation did not include increasing the footprint. In fact, parts of the school were actually demolished.
An open house at Hafford School Sept. 14, 2011 marked the completion of a $1.7 million renovation/demolition project that saw staff and students moving out of their 52-year-old school and holding their 2010-11 classes in other venues throughout the community. It was the completion of a plan that was approved in 2002, then re-approved in 2006, and finally started, unofficially, in 2009 with a special needs washroom project. But the wait has been even longer than that, considering a request for a new school was actually made 33 years ago.
Ron Kowalchuk, representative for Hafford School, said, "We've been approved for pre-K, but there's no room."
Not only are there not enough rooms, he said, but the rooms themselves are too small.
"We're tight. Some classes have kids sitting in the hallway," he said.
Garth Link pointed out government policy has been to fill any freed up space with pre-K and daycare. Ultimately, he said, that doesn't help the division with its space issues.
"When I go to meetings and the government says 'if you empty it, we'll fill it,' that's a major concern to me," said Link.
