LAC LA BICHE - The top school on the Northern Lights Public Schools' priority list for replacement got some good news last week.
Funding is being made available for a design plan that could lead to a new school to replace Lac La Biche's Vera M. Welsh Elementary School. The announcement was made at the same time the Alberta government released its 2023 provincial budget.
The school has been at the top of the school division's capital priority list for two decades. One of its main flaws, notes information in the divison's 2022-2025 Capital Plan document, is a small stream that flows through the basement crawlspace area of the 50-year-old building. The stream is not a design element.
"An underground spring continues to run through the lower mechanical room. Additionally, it is located next to the CN railroad that hauls dangerous chemicals up to oil and gas sites," notes a portion of the background information in the school division's capital plan.
More details expected
News that funding will be available to begin new plans for the school was welcomed by school division officials.
"The board, administration and the community have been pushing for a long time," said NLPS spokesperson Nicole Garner, calling it a group effort of current and past support spanning back two decades.
While the news is good, it's not complete, she cautions.
There are still a lot of questions about the Province's approval to fund a design plan.
"We aren't sure at this point just what the funding will look like," said Garner on Friday, just two days after the announcement. "We don't have a dollar figure."
The school board also doesn't have a time frame for the design plan, or details on specifics about input.
Garner does know that the design plan approval is only the first step.
"This design plan will unfold with a lot of information, like location, costs, features — and it will get documents ready for a possible construction tendering stage," she said, adding that construction approval is not part of the recent design plan announcement. "It will still need final approval from the provincial government to go ahead."
A rough time-frame estimate, based only on the last time the division was approved for a design plan — for the Bonnyville Composite High School project — could be upwards of two years.
The new location for a re-built Vera M. Welsh, since it will likely not be re-built in the same area, is also not certain. According to the information in the most recent version of the division's capital plan, an area called the "Hudson Bay Lands" which border Aurora Middle School to the south and southwest, have been considered as an alternate location. That information, however — along with a potential construction cost of $16.9 million — may not be part of the current design plan, said Garner, saying the new design plan and the information in the capital plan are fluid. "The capital plan is a dynamic document and can change."
One part of the division's capital plan for the school that may remain, however, will be a projected reduction in size. The current Vera M. Welsh building was constructed at 4,300 square-feet to accommodate a student population of 620. A new school design may see that population maximum decrease to 450, bringing down the overall building footprint to 3,300 square feet, based on demographic trends and projections.
Good news
NLPS board trustee Blair Norton never taught in Vera M. Welsh during his 30 years of teaching and administration, but he is very familiar with the issues over the years. On the board since 2021, Norton was pleased to hear the first step toward a new building has been approved.
"It's been on the top of our list for a long time. The announcement is good news all around. Good news for the students, for the teacher, the division and the community," he said, also cautioning the public to consider the efforts that will need to continue. "This is just the beginning. It's been 20 years, but it's only starting."
NLPS board chair Karen Packard tells Lakeland This Week that the announcement is good news for all stakeholders who have been involved for decades. .
"The Board has been advocating for a replacement school for Vera M Welsh for years, and we appreciate all of the support from parents, staff, past trustees, and community members that have also advocated along the way," she said. "This is a great first step, we will do what we can to move this project along as efficiently as possible."
School board officials are expected to get a more detailed picture of what the design plan will mean by the middle of this month
