After months of hard work, the plan for a brand new Ashmont School, designed to hold up to 900 students, was unveiled last week.
Construction of the school is anticipated to begin in the summer or fall of this year, and should take about 18 months to complete. Students will remain in the current Ashmont Elementary and Secondary Schools while construction takes place next door.
“It’s going to look beautiful on that hill,” said board chair Heather Starosielski, when speaking of the design at last week’s regular board of trustees meeting, Wednesday.
Trustee Ruven Rajoo asked if a thorough site assessment had been done as a precaution to prevent a situation such as the new Two Hills Mennonite School now faces. That project has been delayed due to an artesian well being discovered, among other site-related issues.
Assistant superintendent Delane Imeson noted that the province has actually used the Two Hills situation as an example and has changed its site assessment process, to ensure a similar situation doesn’t arise.
The building will be functional, and will act as a K-12 school, rather than the current model that splits the school into two schools under the same roof. One gym will bring all students together, and the entire school will share many other areas.
There will be one main entrance, and four wings will then separate students by grade level.
The province has basic plans it uses when building new schools, but some changes have been made to ensure the building can meet the community’s unique needs.
For example, the province will allow for some of the non-instructional space to be made into instructional space, which was done by creating extra classrooms and breakout spaces.
Providing students with food services is also a big part of the current Ashmont schools, and so changes were made to accommodate that. The gym size is also bigger than a standard gym, with the possibility of having a curtain that separates the space into two, so different groups can use it at the same time.
When making changes to the plan, the division had to ensure the capacity and overall size of the building was staying the same. The new school will hold about 300 more students than the current building.
“The planning team has worked hard to ensure the design is well suited to student, staff and community needs and we are pleased to be able to share this update with our public,” said Starosielski.
While construction takes place, they may be some strain on parking in the area and the playground, but keeping students in the current school will result in the least amount of disruption, heard the board.
The old school will then be demolished and the space will be turned into parking.
Trustees passed a motion to accept the design as presented.
The board also received an update on construction at the new Two Hills Mennonite School. A letter was written to the province before Christmas, and Starosielski fielded a phone call from the Minister of Education himself in response to concerns about the lack of progress at the school site.
The project was delayed another six weeks, and foundation remediation will take place until sometime in March. A clearer schedule has been given to the division to share with the community.
Main construction of the building will resume once remediation of the foundation is complete. The stalled project has been a source of frustration for many people in the Two Hills community.
As the next phase gets going, progress will be more visible, said SPERD Secretary/Treasurer Jean Champagne. The school’s projected completion date is spring of 2017.
