The Northern Lights School Division board of trustees and administration will be discussing the first steps in planning for the newly-approved Lac La Biche high school at their board meeting this Wednesday, prior to meeting with Alberta Infrastructure officials next week.
While other newly announced school projects throughout the province have been built using similar plans, that approach won’t work with the Lac la Biche school, said NLSD superintendent Roger Nippard, adding he hopes the province realizes that having the school attached to the Bold Center will require some unique planning and design.
That design process will likely begin in September, he said, but that may change after Wednesday’s board meeting.
One thing that won’t change is the school division’s commitment to bringing a new elementary school to Lac La Biche. Nippard said they are still looking at ways to get the elementary school approved as soon as possible. Once that school is approved, three Lac La Biche schools – Vera M. Welsh elementary, Central Elementary, and Dr. Swift Middle School – will be put up for sale, with the proceeds offsetting construction costs of the new school.
J.A. Williams is the only school that won’t be put up for sale. In fact, it has been scheduled for a conversion to a middle school for over a half dozen years, said Northern Lights School Division board chair Walter Hrycauk, noting that renovations done about six years ago were intended for the school’s eventual transformation into a middle school.
But before that can happen, an new elementary school needs to be built, something that remains at the top of the NLSD capital projects priority list.
“The elementary school is an important part of the Lac La Biche equation,” he said.
