School facilities in the Southeast Cornerstone School Division have a backlog of work needed to improve roofing, and to replace an aging bus fleet, trustees heard at their monthly board meeting on Wednesday.
Andy Dobson, manager of facilities and transportation for Cornerstone, provided an update on how his department is handling things since bussing and facilities amalgamated into one department last year.
The department has a combined staff of 217, and has three sectors: caretaking, operations and transportation.
Under caretaking, there is one supervisor, two assistant supervisors and 63 full-time equivalent caretakers for 37 schools and the division office.
In operations, there is one supervisor, two foremen, two journeymen electricians, a journeyman plumber, five journeymen carpenters and five maintenance technicians in 52 buildings. In transportation, there are three supervisors, four journeymen mechanics, one mechanic technician and 113 regular route bus drivers, with 43 contracted bus routes and 158 buses to maintain along with 49 fleet vehicles.
Dobson noted the school division had an inservice for the department, including the transportation sector, and had 195 out of 217 staff (or 90 per cent) attend with different speakers for the three sectors.
Two of the biggest challenges for the department are needs for repairs to roofs, with an assessment showing a backlog of some $7.5 million worth of work needing to be done, and replacement of an aging bus fleet, with 2010 as the average model year for the division’s buses, said Dobson.
For the facilities, many facilities have HVAC (heating-ventilation-air conditioning) units nearing the end of their lifespan, along with a list of roofs throughout the division that need work.
In a list of projects submitted to the Ministry for approval for 2017-18, there are 19 projects with a total value of $2.39 million, including projects at Ogema, Stoughton, Maryfield, Fillmore, Estevan Comp and elementary schools, Manor, and in the Home Ec room at the Weyburn Comp.
In addition, Dobson has submitted plans to the Ministry for the next three years for repairs or upgrade projects throughout the school division.
In the transportation sector, in addition to the aging bus fleet, the Weyburn transportation shop is in poor condition and needs to be replaced, with a cost of around $3 million estimated for this project, said Dobson.
In regard to the buses, he said ideally they should be replacing eight to 10 buses a year to keep up. Last year, Cornerstone didn’t replace any buses, and this year they are replacing five. On the servicing end, they are providing maintenance to eight Holy Family buses under an agreement with the separate school division.
