Board tours construction projects

One of the best parts of being a School Board Trustee is to tour our schools. While our school tours usually involve meeting with staff and students, our tour on Wednesday, October 26 was strictly bricks and mortar.

We started off the day with a trip to Myrnam where the Village is working towards developing the area as an education hub. St. Paul Education has granted the Village of Myrnam the opportunity to subdivide a portion of land next to Myrnam School to construct the Myrnam Construction Trades Education Centre (CTEC). The Board of Trustees initially approved Phase One which includes building a 36' x 40' temporary structure to the east of the school which includes a paint booth, heating room and a larger room which contains a large table saw and router. Trustees were impressed with the structure and the equipment in place thus far. They hope to be up and running the program within the next couple of months.

Phase Two includes building a much larger structure on the west side of the school, where the subdivision process is currently in place. This larger structure will include a large building facility and classrooms. All of the funds for these projects is being provided by the Village of Myrnam. St. Paul Education has agreed to assist with staff and programming. However, post secondary programming is also being explored with institutions in the area.

Trustees also traveled to Two Hills to tour the new Mennonite School construction. Although the construction has been delayed numerous times due to some unforeseen site conditions, Trustees were pleased the see the progress made within the last few months. The classrooms are large and bright and the main entrance and gymnasium are impressive. The K-12 school will have a capacity of 550 students and will replace the existing school which is on the same site as the new school. It is expected to be completed and ready for occupancy by September, 2017.

School Boards do not build their own schools. In fact, about 80 per cent of our $55 million budget goes towards the salary of our 650+ employees, who are there to serve all of our students. The money to build schools comes directly from the Alberta Government. The government is also the construction manager of most school construction projects. To see the school projects across the province visit their website at: projects.alberta.ca.