LAKELAND - Throughout July and August, while students in the Northern Lights Public Schools division enjoy a summer break, maintenance staff and contractors will be busy ensuring that school buildings are ready for the upcoming school year.
Leah Rout, the director of facilities for the school division, says there are several projects that the facilities team and contractors will be working on during the summer months. This includes projects at 19 schools and one division office site.
According to Nicole Garner, a spokesperson for Northern Lights Public Schools, the majority of the school division’s major repairs and renovations are done over the summer months.
“The summer months are extremely busy for our facilities team as this is an opportunity to do work in our schools when staff and students are not present and they do not have to worry about the potential of disrupting students' learning while they are working,” Garner told Lakeland This Week.
Kikino, Caslan, Cold Lake, Glendon and Aurora
There will be a considerable amount of contracted work being done to NLPS schools over the next couple of months, including a refresh of the basketball court at Aurora Middle School, a change to the boiler venting at Cold Lake High School, fire pump repairs and replacing pneumatic controls at Caslan School, and a fire pump control panel replacement at Kikino School.
Furthermore, maintenance crews will be relocating a fire hydrant at the Lac La Biche Outreach School and doing a secure entrance and main office update to Nelson Heights School. There will also be the replacement of baseball backstop mesh, roof repairs, along with gym equipment and sprinkler system inspections at various schools.
Garner explained that in-house work taking place during the summer includes modular cladding repairs at Cold Lake Elementary School, new boot room shelving and LED lighting upgrades at Ardmore School, refreshing both sets of washrooms at Iron River School, and replacing classroom clocks at JA Williams High School (JAWS) in Lac La Biche. Glendon School will see the replacement of a playground border on one structure as well as the switching out of fire brick in one boiler.
Other summer maintenance work includes fire alarm inspections, emergency exit inspections, gym floor refinishing, boiler maintenance, equipment repairs and maintenance, along with duties such as grass cutting, and the removal and cleaning up of graffiti.
Division officials say that $1.8 million in capital and maintenance funding from an Infrastructure Maintenance Renewal (IMR) grant and Capital Maintenance & Renewal Fund are being used for many of the upgrades. The remainder of the money needed for summer maintenance projects comes out of the operations and maintenance budget.
“We have been running a deficit in this area of the budget and are expected to have a deficit in this area again this year,” Garner said.
Extensive repairs continue at Ecole Plamondon School following a massive flood that closed the school in April. She says drywall repairs have been completed, and work has begun on painting and flooring installation.
Division administration say the work is on track to be completed for the arrival of the new school year.
“We are on track to have staff and students back in the building for the start of the new school year,” Garner said.
