Upgrading Central Collegiate’s HVAC system is one of four capital projects Prairie South School Division hopes the province funds in its upcoming budget, especially since the Central project has been listed for several years.
School divisions are required to submit major and minor capital funding requests to the Ministry of Education, with the province considering these requests during budget planning for the next fiscal year, a board report explained. So, requests that divisions make in 2023 will be considered for the 2024-25 budget.
The province brings down its budget on Wednesday, March 22, so school divisions will learn then which major projects will be funded.
In 2022, Prairie South (PSSD) applied for funding for three capital projects: major renovations and modernization of Bengough School, major renovations and modernization of Eyebrow School and minor upgrades to Central’s HVAC system.
There was no movement on funding those capital projects last year, so the division is re-submitting those same projects while adding upgrades to Rockglen School’s HVAC system as a minor capital project, the report said.
The division office has updated its major capital requests so that Bengough and Eyebrow will be right-sized for their student populations and the buildings will be modernized to be net zero in carbon emissions.
Those two rural buildings are the “two worst-condition schools” in PSSD, business superintendent Ron Purdy said during the recent board meeting. Meanwhile, neither Central nor Rockglen have ventilation and are hot in the summer, so both will benefit from new air conditioning.
The ministry has funded major capital renovations for years, but added minor capital project funding last year for initiatives that are over $1 million but too big for divisions to handle with their preventative maintenance and renewal (PMR) money, explained trustee Shawn Davidson, also the president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association.
The two major capital projects reflect the division’s ongoing commitment to improving energy efficiency while improving the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems with the minor capital initiatives request are also important, he continued. Upgrading the two HVAC systems is likely the most important part of the application.
“Major capital really puts us in a place where it’s quite a credit to our facilities around the division. We’re not in a position where we’ve got a tremendous amount of overcrowding or facilities that are really hurting really badly,” Davidson said.
“We just have a couple of older schools that could really use a modernization and bring them into the 21st century in a couple of our smaller communities.”
About five years ago when trustees were discussing major capital project submissions, they considered requesting funding to help build the new joint-use school in Moose Jaw, trustee Lew Young said.
“It looks as if all the Is are dotted and the Ts are crossed, that there may be the possibility that before long, we will see shovels in the ground. And it’s taken a long time to do that,” he continued.
“And when we talk about major things happening, it’s kind of a celebration in a sense to see that what was done many years ago is finally to the point — and I’m sure there’s going to be still opposition — … where we may see shovels in the ground sooner than later.”
The next PSSD meeting is Tuesday, April 4.
