Schools in Powell River will see some upgrades within the next year due to an annual facilities grant.
James Thomson Elementary and Brooks Secondary schools will receive the most upgrades under the grant, which is worth $562,351. Upgrades at James Thomson will include exterior painting, community garden and playground enhancements, kitchen renovation and plumbing fixture upgrades. These upgrades, when combined, total $209,951.
Brooks will see upgrades in flooring, wall damage repair, handrail repair, manufacturing of benches and a display case and the replacement of boiler controls, all totalling $97,400.
School District 47 secretary treasurer Steve Hopkins said the money has to be used up within the year, otherwise another grant won’t be issued to the district next year. The focus, he added, is on elementary schools other than Grief Point Elementary School, as it will be replaced by Westview Elementary School after its expected completion in December 2012.
He explained Brooks is a fairly new facility so those upgrades aren’t as drastic. “It has an addition which is only about five years old. We had a building project done where the whole exterior siding and windows were redone a few years ago so it’s for all intents and purposes a pretty new facility.”
Edgehill Elementary School will receive $105,000 worth of upgrades in the form of library window frame repair, flooring and interior painting. Texada Elementary School will receive $4,000 in roof repairs. Kelly Creek Community School will have $46,000 of the grant put toward flooring and a water filtration system.
Students who would have normally gone to Oceanview Middle School will be moved to Brooks as of this September. Hopkins said while it is not yet definitive, the school board “is exploring the practicality and cost effectiveness of repurposing [the school].
“We have some programs throughout the community that are in lease buildings,” he said. “If we can adapt the building in such a way that it accommodates these various programs then we can rejuvenate that site, use it for those programs and then get out of our operating leases. It would save us money by not having to pay rent in other buildings.”
Hopkins added it would save the Powell River Board of Education about $70,000 annually in leases. The school board is using $100,000 of the grant to repurpose Oceanview.
Jay Yule, superintendent of schools for the district, said an engineer is going through Oceanview and assessing the building’s condition. “We’re just waiting for the report to see what kind of work needs to be done.”
Hopkins said moving students to Brooks has been a gradual process. “Currently the only grade in [Oceanview] is grade eight. As of September they will be moving to Brooks making Brooks a grade eight to 12 school.”
The ministry of education recently announced $122 million in funding for 14 seismic projects throughout the province.
Hopkins said the assessments done on Powell River schools indicate the current risk is medium to low. “There won’t be any structural seismic upgrades funded from government locally,” Hopkins said. “It does appear that the following year they’ll begin again with non-structural funding for those districts that don’t have structural needs. We’ll likely have an engineering firm undertake a local review and make recommendations on how best to use those funds.”
