Move-in date postponed for older MacLeod students

When junior kindergarten to Grade 2 MacLeod Public School students move into the school's new building after the Christmas break, their older peers won't be joining them.

During construction on the nearly $18-million South End area building, the younger students have been attending classes in MacLeod's annex, or a separate building on the school's campus.

Older students are currently being bused to the old Wembley Public School, where they'll stay until September 2014.

As manager of facilities Nathalie Mihelchic told Rainbow District School Board trustees during their Sept. 24 meeting, construction on the building is now 75 to 80 per cent complete.

The reason for keeping the older students at Wembley until the next school year is because while the building itself will be complete soon, landscaping on the school yard will have to wait until the warmer weather arrives again next year.

While there will be a paved area on the playground ready this winter, it's not big enough for all of the school's 550 pupils.

“That wouldn't be fair to the kids,” said the Rainbow board's director of education, Norm Blaseg. “So rather than move them in, which we could, we decided let's just keep them back until we get all the landscaping complete.”

Once the junior kindergarten to Grade 2 students move into the new MacLeod, the annex building will be demolished, with work on that project due to be completed sometime in March.

Despite confusion from some community members on this point, the project is on time, Blaseg said. He said the original communication was the school would be ready in the fall of 2013.

“Some people have misinterpreted that to say we were ready to start school in September 2013,” he said. “That was never the case.”

Part of the reason behind the new school building is that MacLeod was experiencing pressures because its enrolment was at capacity. The new MacLeod is being built with capacity for 600 students.

The school is going to be “beautiful,” Blaseg said, incorporating a daycare, a full-size gym, large early learning rooms and, like all schools built in the area recently, green construction.

“The architecture itself is quite unique, and me describing it will not pay it justice,” he said.

“But we've really worked hand-in-hand with the physical environment, in that there's lots of rock in the area, and we've been able to utilize that to our advantage.”

Because of the enrolment pressures at MacLeod, the board had purchased two modular units in recent years to add space at the school. Now that the school has a new building, these units were no longer needed in their current location.

At the same time, nearby R.L. Beattie Public School has seen an enrolment growth of 50 students in just the past year. Blaseg said he thinks that's due to the popularity of the school's French Immersion program.

To accommodate the extra students, MacLeod's modulars were moved over the summer and installed at R.L. Beattie at a cost of $300,000. Another modular was purchased at a cost of $200,000.

These modular units aren't anything like the old school “portables,” as they're quite nice and connected to the school, Blaseg said. “In fact, if you walk through there, you would think it's just another extension of the school,” he said.

The board has also started a $2-million renovation of Churchill Public School.

Churchill's old gym – which was on the small side – is being transformed into two new early learning classrooms. A new gym similar to the new one at MacLeod will then be built for the school.

“It was great for that particular site to invest in a gymnasium because we have a high Grade 7 and 8 population,” Blaseg said. “We have about 200 kids in Grade 7 and 8.”

While construction work has already begun, the bulk of the project will be completed next summer, he said.

Some of the money for the project is being provided by the province under its early learning capital projects fund, while the rest is coming out of the Rainbow board's coffers.

These construction projects are just the latest of several the board has undertaken recently.

MacLeod is the third new school Rainbow has constructed over the past few years. Valley View Public School opened in the fall of 2007 and Walden Public School opened in the fall of 2009.

When asked if Rainbow's flurry of construction projects are due to slow down any time soon, Blaseg said the board is always looking for an opportunity to renew its facilities if there's a case to be made to the province.

For example, a lot of the recent renovations have been done under the early learning capital projects fund.

In Espanola, where the board is looking at amalgamating its high school and elementary school, Rainbow will also be seeking capital funds to make it happen, Blaseg said.

“We have a great planning department with how we come up with and be creative in term of our proposals, and how we can fit certain situations so they fall into compliance,” he said.

“At the end of the day, it really works well for community, and it really works well for the kids. We also like to reduce our operating costs, and that is done significantly through all of these projects.”