As a part of School District 51’s (SD51) five-year capital plan, staff are looking to replace Christina Lake Elementary School with a new school.
Along with new buses, the school board hopes to replace the aging elementary school with a new school soon when the plan is submitted to the Ministry of Education by the end of the school year.
“When I said we needed to replace our school (the ministry) thought we needed a new bus, but a new school has been on our plan for a while,” explained Jeanette Hanlon, secretary-treasurer to the SD51 school board. “It’s the school that’s been ranked, or was ranked, that it needed the most work and that it was replaceable. (Christina Lake) is the school that’s in the worst shape.”
However, Hanlon noted that in order to get a school replaced on a capital plan, it requires a major process where money has to be spent to have plans drawn up, including rationales on why the school should be replaced.
“The ministry said that it could be up to five years before you get a school replaced,” she said, nothing that it may not be Christina Lake but it could be a different school that they may want to replace. “They said if you’re lucky enough to get it replaced next year we would be asking about all your other schools and you could change it from Christina Lake. But in order for us to put it on a plan, we would probably have to spend $10,000 to put it on the capital plan.”
Hanlon added, “The (ministry) suggested rolling it over and look at our plan for the reports on all the assessments of the buildings. Basically, is there another school that needs replacing more than Christina Lake.”
The replacement of Christina Lake Elementary School was listed as year four in the five year plan, but Hanlon pointed out that it has been the boards plan to replace to school for many years.