100 Mile Elementary School, Mile 108 Elementary and Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School will be getting new roofs this summer.
This comes after School District 27 received $2.4-million from the School Enhancement Program (SEP) from the Ministry of Education this year. Marcus Loewen, manager of operations and facilities for SD27, said this funding will allow them to maintain their school’s ageing infrastructure.
“It’s very welcomed money. It’s no secret our buildings are ageing so any time we can make improvements we are very appreciative of that,” Loewen said. “We can do these roofs and we won’t have to worry about them for another 20 to 25 years.”
Loewen said that 100 Mile Elementary’s entire roof will be redone, noting it is at least 25 years old and five years overdue for a replacement. At Mile 108 four different sections of the roof will be replaced while PSO will have six sections of the roof replaced. These sections are all at least 20 years old.
The total cost to replace the three schools’ roofs will be $1.8 million.
SD27 is currently in the process of accepting bids from local contractors for the projects. Once a contractor is selected in April, Loewen said work will begin in July after school ends, with a goal to complete the projects by the end of August.
“We don’t like having roofing projects going on when staff and students are in the building, it’s kind of a WorkSafe issue. If we can expedite it (over the summer) that’s what we try to do,” Loewen said.
The remaining funds from the SEP are being allocated to other school improvement projects including installing a new HVAC system in Tatla Lake Elementary-Junior Secondary School. Loewen said when the school was built six propane HydroTherm boilers were installed which are now “very much at the end of their life.”
“We have submitted an application to have those boilers replaced and we were approved for that as well,” Loewen said.“We will be replacing with them high-efficiency boilers so they’ll go from about 60 per cent efficiency to 96 per cent efficiency.”
In Williams Lake, meanwhile, Lake City Secondary School is receiving $100,000 to upgrade the school’s old kitchen/cafeteria. Loewen noted the kitchen has not been functional for some time, so this new equipment will allow them to reopen it.
“We’re discussing with our principals and senior management staff about what sort of a meal plan we want to offer for the students. Once we determine that it will dictate what we buy for equipment,” Loewen said. “Hopefully by September or early in the fall we’ll have something functional so we’ll be able to provide the kids with some much needed meals.”
SD27 was also approved to replace four of the oldest members of its bus fleet with new vehicles. Because of supply chain issues, however, Loewen doesn’t expect they’ll receive these new buses until at least 2025.
Loewen gave kudos to the Ministry of Education for providing them with this funding for these projects, noting it is above and beyond their usual operating costs.
“We do a fairly good job of keeping the doors open and managing the facilities but any time we can make some substantial improvements it is very reassuring,” Loewen remarked. “It’s always nice when we get a little extra from the ministry that enables us to go a little bit farther.”
With files from Misha Mustaqeem.
