Prairie South School Division issued nearly $100,000 in project tenders last month, including money to upgrade technology at Central Collegiate, King George School and three rural schools.
The division distributed $98,518.85 between Jan. 1 and 31, which included:
- Awarding Inland Audio Visual with a contract to supply and install a new laser projector in Central’s gym for $23,573.59
- Giving $23,195.26 to GenX IT Solutions to order new Chromebooks for King George
- Awarding Pro-Tec Electric with a contract to upgrade cameras and data cabling for $51,750 at Assiniboia Seventh Avenue School ($20,000), Bengough ($15,250) and Coronach ($16,500)
Ron Purdy, superintendent of finance, said during the Feb. 6 board meeting that the projectors in Central’s gym were small, old and used bulbs, while the new laser projectors are digital and more efficient. He acknowledged that digital machines are more expensive to purchase but said they wouldn’t have to replace the bulbs as often.
“They’ll have a very nice projector in Central’s gym there,” he said.
Meanwhile, the division office missed a request from King George for school Chromebooks when it placed a group order for the devices in October through GenX Solutions in Toronto, Purdy said. He acknowledged that the cost per unit for the new Chromebooks was “a little bit higher” than the older models.
Updated maintenance plan
The board approved Prairie South’s 2023-25 Preventative Maintenance and Renewal (PMR) plan in May 2022, which included projects to install security cameras at Central and Assiniboia Elementary School this year for $25,000 each.
However, during the February board meeting, division administration submitted an amendment to the PMR plan to push those two projects into the future. Instead, the division will now install new cameras for the same price at Central Butte and Coronach.
Darren Baiton, buildings manager, explained that the division is making this change because Central and Assiniboia already have security cameras — this would have been an upgrade — while Central Butte and Coronach have zero such cameras.
Meanwhile, he said his department has a long-term plan to install security cameras at other rural schools, with those upgrades to occur in the next two to three years.
In its 2023-25 PMR plan, Prairie South planned to spend $2,850,000 on 17 projects in 2023-24, $3,195,000 on 12 projects in 2024-25, and $2,144,500 on five projects in 2025-26, for a total of $8,189,500.
The next PSSD board meeting is Tuesday, March 5.
