EAST CENTRAL — Upgrades for Nipawin’s L.P. Miller Comprehensive and Melfort and Unit Comprehensive Collegiate (MUCC) are the North East School Division’s (NESD’s) two funding requests for capital projects to the province this year.
According to Don Rempel, director of education for the NESD, should these projects be funded, it would mean the closure of others – with the transfer of the student body to the new facilities.
“When you have a major capital investment in a community, you want to be able to go in and look after all of your educational facilities at one time so you don’t have to make that major capital investment again for another 50 years,” he said.
For MUCC, this would result in a new expansion onto the collegiate to consolidate two to five schools as well as a modernization renovation for the school.
Rempel said its likely Maude Burke, the newest school, would stay, while the other elementary schools would be consolidated into a new elementary school by the high school.
“You would have to start having the conversation at the planning stage,” he said.
“Anytime you look at a major capital investment you have to look at the facilities and the condition of the facilities in that community or perhaps in the neighbouring communities. That’s just part of your long term planning.”
For L.P. Miller’s upgrades, it would mean a consolidation, modernization and renovation.
In last year’s application, the NESD acquired funding for a new expansion onto the Carrot River School gym to consolidate two or three schools, something that the NESD has been seeking for a number of years.
“They have a top ten list. If you get in within that list you could start having more detailed conversations and then you would wait for a number of years before you get approved for the capital project,” Rempel said.
“We’ve been in the top ten list with Carrot River for five or six years now.”
