The Pembina Hills school division will no longer be footing half of the bill for the transportation and installation of six modular classrooms at the new Pembina North Community School at Dapp.
Pembina Hills board chair Kim Webster confirmed last week that the province will be covering the entire bill for the modular classrooms.
“There’s no cost involved in the modernization or moving the modulars to Pembina Hills,” she said.
In January, Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec announced the province was committing to the modernization of Dapp School to transform it into the Pembina North Community School.
The new K-9 school will house the students from Dapp School, Jarvie School and W.R. Frose School in Fawcett. Currently, Pembina Hills is in the process of closing the latter two.
The modernization of Dapp School will be an ongoing process lasting several years, but the most immediate change to the building will be the addition of six modulars to increase the capacity of the school from 218 to 320 students.
Last year, the province initiated a cost-sharing agreement wherein school divisions receiving a modular classroom must contribute 50 per cent of the costs for transportation and set up. Webster estimated the savings to Pembina Hills as roughly $50,000 per modular, but she stressed that was a rough estimate.
“I think ($50,000) would be fairly close,” she said.
Webster said the division would have supported paying for half of the modular cost “because we believe in this project so much.”
“However, that was really good news that we don’t have to take that out of our budget, because we’re always struggling with the backlog (of projects) that need to be done.”
Notably, the six modular classrooms have been ordered by Alberta Education, but it is not known when exactly they will arrive.
“We’ve been given a commitment more than once that the modulars will be in place before Sept. 1, 2014,” she said.
She said the province hasn’t publicly committed to a final cost for the modernization project. “They’re going to be looking for some flexibility in saving dollars,” she said.
It should be noted that the final decision on the closure of Jarvie and W.R. Frose School in Fawcett will be made at the May 14 Pembina Hills board meeting.
Public meetings have been scheduled for April 7 and 8 at W.R. Frose School and Jarvie School respectively for residents and parents to weigh in on the proposed closure.
Both schools currently meet several criteria for closure regarding facility space utilization and enrolment as specified in Pembina Hills’ Administrative Procedure 20-9.
