A number of summer projects are underway in the Western School Division this summer.
Some of those projects are bigger projects that have been ongoing, like the new addition for the Pipe Trades Program at the welding shop, and the new classroom addition at Morden Collegiate.
There are also schools being refreshed with paint, a gym floor in the middle school has been stripped and will be re-finished, and a $1.7 million boiler replacement project is underway at Maple Leaf School.
The division is also reconfiguring a school computer lab to utilize it for classroom space for next year if need be. "We're trying to do everything we can to be agile for fall," said Superintendent Stephen Ross.
Ross says it means a lot know the students will have some extra space, and additional facilities available to them. "As communities grow, you know Winkler went through the same thing with large population growth and kids sort of miss out on some of the opportunities, maybe because all the space isn't there, all the specialty space. We're kind of going through that, but it's nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel opening up here with some of these additional spaces coming along, and I think the kids will enjoy that, especially now that they don't have to be two-metres apart, and all of those other things that we've just lived through."
Ross says the hope is for the classroom addition at the collegiate to be complete by the end of September. "At this stage, rain set us back a little bit timewise, but they're doing a great job moving through there."
The piping trades addition at the welding shop will likely be finished in October. Ross expects the board will plan a grand opening to celebrate its completion sometime in November.
The Western School Division, which is badly in need of additional space, is waiting for its awarded k-8 school to be built. The school is currently in the design phase, and as of Monday, July 11th, the design process was 66% complete.
The Western School Division has 18 portable classrooms in use.
