LAKELAND – The Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) board of trustees approved the school division’s three-year capital plan during a recent board meeting in Bonnyville.
According to Nicole Garner, the communications and public relations manager for NLPS, the three-year plan is reviewed annually and updated with any changes to the condition of the schools on the list. As stated in information from NLPS, capital plans are a list of capital priorities that the board of trustees would like to receive funding for from the Alberta government.
The provincial government decides which projects are approved for funding and when they will go ahead.
“The board then determines whether it wants to keep the priorities the same, or change the order based on the individual projects. It includes both replacement projects and modernization projects,” Garner said.
Currently, there are four priority schools on the NLPS capital plan.
The top priority remains the construction of a new building to replace Lac La Biche’s 52-year-old Vera M. Welsh Elementary School. Design funding for a new Vera M. Welsh building was approved in 2023, and a site for the new school located next to the Bold Centre was approved during a meeting of Lac La Biche County council in September 2023 and finalized in April 2024.
The second priority is a solution for schools in Cold Lake South, while the board’s third and fourth priorities are a new school for Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement and further modernization work for École Plamondon.
Cold Lake solution
The school division, Garner explained, is looking for a solution to Art Smith Aviation Academy, located on 4 Wing Cold Lake, as well as North Star Elementary School, and Cold Lake Junior High, all of which are situated in the southern part of the city.
All of these schools, she said, have infrastructure needs that must be addressed. Because of this, the board of trustees decided to put it as one project in the hopes of finding a solution that will meet the needs of students in all three schools.
“This project has been approved for planning funding, which will help determine the scope of the project and if it involves building a new school, modernizations, or some combination,” Garner stated.
Buffalo Lake
Recently, the NLPS board of trustees was approved by the province for pre-planning funding for a new Buffalo Lake school. This funding, Garner said, will help to determine the scope of the project.
Plamondon
On the afternoon of April 18, 2024, a flood caused by a water main leak ran through École Plamondon School, causing extensive damage, along with the closure of the school building. This meant that students and staff spent the remainder of the school year at alternate sites in Plamondon and Lac La Biche.
While significant work was done on the school building last summer to repair damage from the water main leak, according to Garner, these repairs did not address the work that was identified in the capital plan.
This work includes plumbing and washroom upgrades, windows, roofing, replacements of the school’s boiler, air handling unit and ceiling, as well as upgrades to allow the school to offer programming, “including a home economics room and space for tire balancing equipment that has been donated to the school," she said.
Hopeful for more
Currently, Vera M. Welsh and the Cold Lake South solution are in the queue for the school construction accelerator program. Through this program, which was launched in 2024, the Alberta government is investing $8.6 million over a seven-year period to create more than 100 new and updated schools, along with about 200,000 student spaces.
“Buffalo Lake needs to go through the pre-planning process before it can be considered for that program,” she noted.
“We are hopeful we will receive approval soon to move forward with construction for the Vera project,” Garner added.
