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WES to get modular classroom

Westlock Elementary School has been approved to receive a modular classroom to increase its capacity, but when that classroom will arrive has not been determined. At the Pembina Hills school division’s June 29 meeting, Supt.
Westlock Elementary’s new modular classroom is slated to be added to the school north of the gym beside the bus loop.
Westlock Elementary’s new modular classroom is slated to be added to the school north of the gym beside the bus loop.

Westlock Elementary School has been approved to receive a modular classroom to increase its capacity, but when that classroom will arrive has not been determined.

At the Pembina Hills school division’s June 29 meeting, Supt. Egbert Stang announced the division had been given funding to go ahead with the project.

However, because there is still some paperwork left to be done before the order can be sent to the company that actually provides the modular classroom, secretary treasurer Tracy Meunier said she does not believe the classroom will be built before the 2011-2012 school year starts in August.

“We were initially thinking when we got the phone call that it was going to happen quite quick,” she said.

Still, she said she hopes to see the classroom installed before the snow flies, or at worst, before school gets out in June.

Pembina Hills maintenance director Tracy Tyreman said when the classroom arrives will depend on when the division completes its paperwork, as well as how many other schools have placed orders for a modular classroom.

Once the order has been placed, Westlock Elementary will be placed on the company’s schedule, he said, which is a first-come, first-served list.

Before the classroom arrives and is installed, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to prepare the school for the new addition. This work includes stripping the sod from the ground, driving in pilings to give the addition a solid foundation and rerouting the wiring leading into the classroom.

The plan is to install the classroom on the north side of the gym, alongside the bus loop, Tyreman said, because that area is free space where the addition will not impede upon playgrounds or pathways around the school.

Once the classroom is completed, he said it will only be obvious it’s an addition when looking at it from the outside.

“When you’re inside the school, you won’t really notice that you’re going into a modular,” he said.

The process to acquire the modular classroom started back in April, when Tyreman reported three schools — Westlock Elementary, Busby School and Eleanor Hall in Clyde — had increasing populations that could warrant future modulars.

Meunier said the division made its request in April knowing that it often takes years for requests to be granted. The fact it only took less than three months for the request to be approved was a welcome surprise, she said.

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