The going has been tight, and will probably get tighter for the facilities department in the South East Cornerstone Public School Division.
Andy Dobson, manager of facilities for Cornerstone, provided the trustees with additional information regarding current staffing shortages and facility upgrades that had been carried out and a few others that had to be postponed due to funding shortfalls.
Dobson also brought the board members information regarding recent playground safety audits and subsequent plans to correct the weaknesses identified in school playground equipment throughout the division.
Dobson said his department has not been fully staffed since April of 2012 with an ongoing problem of keeping electricians, plumbers and carpenters on the payroll in a consistent pattern. There is also a weakness in hiring substitute caretakers in some regions also.
On the bright side, Dobson said a lot of roof repair work has been completed over the past five years, 20 major projects, to be exact with three of them being at Estevan Comprehensive School where nearly $2 million has been spent on roof repairs since 2010.
Bids for relocateable classrooms were rejected since the lowest bids submitted were at least $150,000 over the budget allocation. Dobson noted that cost escalations have taken a big toll on a number of projects, including the latest ECS roof repair that was only partially completed, again due to the fact they simply ran out of money.
Preventative maintenance programs however, are paying off, and quarterly field reports are showing concrete results in that regard.
“But roofing replacement work remains as a big problem because of cost and lack of contractors,” Dobson said.
The work that was completed though was a big relief for many aging buildings in the system that included a few teacherages, maintenance shops and bus garages as well as 38 schools and their accompanying playgrounds.
In respect to the delayed roofing projects, chairwoman Audrey Trombley suggested that “soon as they see it’s a government agency, health, education, the price goes up. Somehow some contractors think that government is different, but we’re all government and everyone pays eventually.”
Dobson said roofing work alone since 2009-10 has amounted to nearly $5.4 million.
He also noted that the ongoing renovation and additions to Weyburn Comprehensive School are proceeding, but still behind schedule.
“The contractor is optimistic and says they’ll be done by December 2015. I believe it will be closer to February or March, 2016,” Dobson said.
The first phase of the rebuild that came in at $29.3 million was 5.12 per cent over budget due to change orders, including an additional $320,000 for the additions made to the kitchen and parking lot hydrant re-location that weren’t included in the original provincial plans. Phase 2 at $27.4 million has a 3.86 per cent over run, to date, or about $1.1 million with the west parking lot and required structural work to be done in the old gymnasium and some concrete work that wasn’t identified in the original planning.
“In Phase 1 there was no provincial contingency plan for cost over run, but there is now,” said Dobson.
The long-term sale of 178 former rural school properties now under the division’s jurisdiction, has pretty well rolled to a conclusion with more than half being sold to neighbouring farm operations who were interested in picking up the one to three acre sites so they could put them into crops or pasture land. Most of these abandoned properties did not have any items or structures of any value left on them other than a few abandoned foundations, playgrounds and worn out fences.
Dobson said the focus in his sector in the future will be on heating and ventilation upgrades as well as roof repairs required to protect vital assets.
