Aspen View Public School Division continued its quest to receive funding for a new secondary school for students in Athabasca by having former Minister of Infrastructure Wayne Drysdale visit EPC last Thursday.
Drysdale switched to his new role as the Minister of Transportation the following day.
Aspen View would like to build a new school connected to or in the vicinity of the Athabasca Regional Multiplex. If the division builds a new school, it would decommission Edwin Parr Composite High School (EPC).
Drysdale visited EPC to see what kind of shape the facility is in.
“It was great to tour the school. It is vibrant,” Drysdale said. “It’s not a school that’s blown away, but it’s an old school.”
He explained the vibrancy comes from staff and students.
“It’s a great place, but the best-before date has come and gone,” he stated. “We need to either modernize it, or something different.”
Drysdale said the meeting he sat in on during his visit to EPC was enlightening.
“The community is really working hard to come up with a solution that is going to benefit more than just the school,” he explained. “Everyone wants to work together as partners. There were lots of people at the table from municipal (government), and it was really great to see there were three young people from the school council here.”
Drysdale said having people who attend the school at the meeting brought a different view.
“They probably won’t be the ones to benefit from it, but they are the ones to see where it is at today, and they can help us. They know what is here today and what their experiences are. They are living it.”
Drysdale said when he looks at making a decision on whether or not a school meets the criteria for funding, one thing he looks at is health and safety.
“We don’t want any of our children in unsafe spaces,” he said. “(EPC) is an old school, but they have looked after it and maintained it well. I am not afraid of the roof falling down or children being hurt, so it is not a health issue.”
He also stated growth and opportunities for partnerships were factors.
“There are schools in the province today that have 140-per-cent utilization; they are busting at the seams,” he explained. “Then there is the partnerships and better use of taxpayers’ dollars.”
He also looks at the cost of modernization.
“If it is going to cost too much to modernize it — if it costs more than 70 per cent (of the cost to build new) to modernize, you are better off building new,” he said. “We don’t know what those numbers are yet.”
With the provincial cabinet shuffle, Drysdale is no longer the Minister of Infrastructure.
“Unfortunately, tomorrow I am moving on, but I can talk the new minister,” he said. “He is aware of the issues, and I am sure he will be here one day.”
Aspen View is not concerned about the change.
“We are not worried about that at all,” Aspen View Schools superintendent Brian LeMessurier said. “We have an MLA, and he continues to be able to take our message to treasury and the caucus around our needs.”
LeMessurier is confident Drysdale will pass along what he saw to the next Minister of Infrastructure, Ric McIver.
“We trust that recommendation, and we trust that Minister Drysdale will forward a very honest assessment of the shape of EPC and the needs of our students in the region,” he explained. “We will continue to engage in any way we can with the Minister of Infrastructure, because we know that the Minister of Education has recused himself from this particular application of funding so he is clear of any conflicts.”
Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater MLA and Minister of Education Jeff Johnson has removed himself from helping decide if Aspen View receives funding for a new school as he has ties to property near the proposed new school site and has expressed concern over a possible perceived conflict of interest. He is deferring to the Minister of Infrastructure to make the call.
Aspen View is awaiting word if it will receive funding for a new school or a renovation, or none at all.
“We have an opportunity here partnering with Athabasca University that very few secondary schools in Alberta have,” LeMessurier said. “The only one that I can directly think of is Olds (High) School, which was built attached to Olds College.”
LeMessurier said he was envisioning what could be.
“AU’s campus, our school grounds — should we be successful at getting a school there — all the recreation facilities, the outdoor facilities, the horticultural project, the ski trails and hiking trails, the diamonds and pitches — and we just dream of the expansion of what it could look like in the future,” he said. “There is just such an exciting array of possibilities of what we could grow that learning facility into over time.”
LeMessurier said the school division and administration are prepared for whatever answer they receive.
“One possibility could be the approval for the renovation of EPC,” he said. “If that happens, we will do our due diligence and go back through the process of what we have at EPC, and what we can have at EPC with an approved renovation and an attempt to build a 21st-century facility.”
He said if the EPC renovation were approved, Aspen View would take a closer look at how much that renovation would cost.
“If it turns out that we are so reasonably close in what it would cost to renovate (to) the cost of building new, then we would redirect our efforts to go back to the minister and say it doesn’t make sense to spend Alberta taxpayers’ money of this amount on this old a building.”
Aspen View’s preferred outcome is to be granted funding for a new school outright.
“If that is the case, we have got to get to work in the weeks and months to come to continue to work on a lease arrangement or an acquisition of property from Athabasca University and the multiplex board,” said LeMessurier.
