North Battleford, Blaine Lake and Lloydminster among communities to benefit from province’s funding

Blaine Lake Composite School will receive funding for a new K-12 school to replace the existing school, which dates back to 1954.

Prairie Spirit School Division Director of Education Lori Jeschke said the division has been advocating for funding for the project. The new facility will be more modern and will provide more space. The existing building saw additions for a gym in 1961 and for a resource centre in 1971, but lacked today’s efficiencies and needed to be replaced.

Jeschke said the layout will also be improved for the new building.

“The new one will have more spaces designed for the way we learn in schools now; it’s different than it used to be,” she said. “There will opportunities for collaboration in [various] spaces in the school, … and for us to embrace all of our learners and our different cultures. Just that in itself is going to have a huge change from the way the school was designed way back in 1950.”

The new school will also be more accessible for students with disabilities.

“We’ll have an opportunity now to create a space where everybody has access,” Jeschke said. “That will be really positive.”

For North Battleford’s John Paul II Collegiate, serving grades 8 to 12, the school will receive funding in the province’s budget for renovations and an addition.

“We have had this project at the forefront of our application for a number of years,” Light of Christ Catholic School Division Chief Financial Officer Jordan Kist said.

The school’s students and staff had input into the strategic plan for the project, aimed to revitalize the building and update aging infrastructure.

Kist said the work will involve upgrading and modernizing the building, with the focus on expanding the Industrial Arts area and the building’s main entrance, and perhaps renovating the gymnasium area as well. The full details of the project are still in the planning phase.

The anticipated value of the full project is approximately $15 million. The division has been awarded up to $750,000 for next year to begin the project’s initial design and planning phase.

Kist said the division is looking forward to seeing the initiative progress.

“We’re very excited to see the finished project,” he said. “It will be a number of years before it is complete.”

In Lloydminster two schools will be upgraded through the province’s funding. Both the Comprehensive High School and Holy Rosary Catholic High School will see renovations and an addition.

For Holy Rosary Catholic High School, Lloydminster Catholic School Division board chair Paula Scott said the project will involve an expansion of classrooms.

She was happy to hear of the funding from the province.

“We have been working on this project for a couple of years,” Scott said. “As Holy Rosary has grown over the years we have been constantly asking for our expansion. So we are absolutely thrilled we are able to do this. And it is great news for our students to be able to have some more room, and to continue to grow.”

The school will be gaining about 16 new classrooms.

“We’ll also be getting more Practical and Applied Arts space too, as well as for our common area for students,” Scott said.

Currently the building has two wings, so the south wing will be expanded to accommodate the 16 more classrooms on two floors.

“It will be quite a significant expansion for us,” Scott said.

She said it will create likely a little more than 400 more seats for students.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW

by Angela Brown

North Battleford, Blaine Lake and Lloydminster among communities to benefit from province’s funding

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