BARRHEAD — Pembina Hills trustees passed a motion during their Dec. 13 meeting to withdraw up to $1.5 million from reserves to expand the east gymnasium at Barrhead Composite High School (BCHS) as part of the overall modernization project that was approved by the Alberta government earlier this year.
The board meeting, which was held at the division’s regional office in Barrhead, served as both an opportunity for administration to update trustees about the progress of the BCHS modernization project and to present them with the gym expansion proposal.
Supt. Michael Borgfjord said the modernization and right-sizing of BCHS has been a priority within the division’s capital plan for some time now, as the school was originally constructed to house 1,260 students and currently only has an enrolment of 737.
Due to the way education funding works, the low utilization rate at BCHS actually results in Pembina Hills receiving less money from the province, Borgfjord noted.
In 2018, the division initiated a “value scoping” process and engaged an outside consultant to draft a report spelling out the case for modernizing BCHS. That report was shared with school administration and local municipalities in 2021.
While the division initially sought to build a replacement school, eventually it settled on a modernization that would entail demolishing a portion of the school and retrofitting the rest to be a more modern space.
“(The retrofit) is going to be really positive for the community and really positive for our students,” he said.
He noted that the division has reached out to other community groups about potentially sharing some of the new space, though the cost of doing so is pretty high as anything shared will have to meet modern specifications.
“It’s not as simple as having classroom space re-purposed; they have to invest a significant amount of dollars to actually make that happen,” he said.
In March 2023, the province announced that funding would be provided for the planning and design of the BCHS modernization.
Borgfjord said they began having meetings with Alberta Infrastructure in July 2023 to discuss the project while still having conversations with local municipalities and other groups.
Earlier this month, administration met with BCHS staff to share what the modernization could look like with the aim of gathering feedback. With that now in mind, the finalization of the design will now begin in January 2024.
While all the details are still being worked out, Borgfjord suggested BCHS would be reduced in size to accommodate a total of 820 students.
This would mean reducing the building from 12,696 square metres to 9,552, a total reduction of 3,145 square metres, indicated director of facilities Tracy Tyreman.
Tyreman noted the reason why they went with a modernization instead of a replacement school because they would lose too much space with a new build — the drama theatre would be chopped, and all of the shops would likely be halved in size.
Plus, as Tyreman noted, the BCHS building is still in very good shape structurally, and a modernization would be considerably less costly — a new build would be roughly $6,500 per square metre versus $2,800 per square metre for a modernization.
“Our chances of getting this were quite a bit better than a new build,” he said.
Gym proposal
Tyreman said BCHS currently has three gymnasiums that were built in 1959, 1961 and 1988, with the east gym being the largest of the three.
Despite this apparent abundance of gym space, Tyreman said none of the three gymnasiums are perfect by any means; the two centre gyms are too narrow while the east gym is wider but not long enough.
“We have these three spaces that definitely could be better,” he added.
Tyreman said that when the east gym was built in 1988, it was originally going to be larger, but those plans changed due to cost concerns. “The gym was shrunk down to the size it is now,” he said.
Administration’s proposal was to essentially restore the east gym to its original intended size and then split it into two gymnasiums using a curtain, Tyreman said. The size would increase from 1,370 to 1,429 square metres.
“We would actually have more space for the students and after-hour activities than what we had before,” he said.
Unfortunately, this project would not be funded with provincial dollars intended for the modernization, so they would need to use Pembina Hills’ reserves.
As for the other other two gyms, the plan right now is to re-purpose the west gym into a common area, library and cafeteria, while also taking out the stage in the middle gym to provide more space.
Secretary-treasurer Heather Nanninga said the east gym expansion was projected to cost about $1.3 million, but administration recommended passing a motion to take out $1.5 million to allow for some leeway.
Although the board did pass a motion approving the withdrawal, Borgfjord noted they still need to get permission from the province to do so.
Q & A
After the motion to approve the gym expansion proposal was passed, Borgfjord and Tyreman then attempted to answer the questions of the 10 to 12 parents and community members attending the meeting.
Noting she didn’t have any issue with the modernization itself, one parent asked about the current size of BCHS’ classrooms versus what they will be following the modernization.
Borgfjord said the modernization will not affect class size; the only way that will change is if Alberta Education increases funding for programming.
Another parent asked if the modernization would cause any loss of options or programming. Borgfjord said that wouldn’t be the case assuming interest from the students in programs doesn’t decline.
Trisha Enman, a division employee in attendance, also asked when the details will be brought to the "invested community groups" like Barrhead Minor Ball and the local pickleball group.
Borgfjord said that will probably have to involve a meeting between the county, town and the division, adding that this is one of the reasons they have been in contact with local municipalities.
