FORT FRANCES—Water quality at Our Lady of the Way School in Stratton will top discussions when the Northwest Catholic District School Board meets there Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
The board will hear an update on water quality at Our Lady of the Way, which had been under a boil-water advisory since the new school year started earlier this month.
“The water was approved this week,” Education Director John Madigan said Friday morning.
But just because the water was approved for consumption by the Northwestern Health Unit doesn’t mean the school is out of the woods yet.
“The testing goes on and on, and so from week to week it could not pass or pass,” Madigan noted.
Over the summer months, the school was to receive a number of repairs to address its water concerns, such as capping the well so that groundwater can’t get in.
But not all the repairs could be completed before classes resumed earlier this month and students have not been able to drink the water until now.
“We had an engineer from Thunder Bay come and [do] an analysis of what needs to be done. But the difficulty has been getting someone to do the work that is needed,” Madigan said.
In other news, the board also will review environmental assessments of each of its schools to determine the physical accessibility for people with disabilities.
“We basically see from the reports that the schools are in good shape in terms of accessibility for physical disabilities,” Madigan said.
“The recommendations are only minor—small renovations like adding handles or changing taps and sinks in the bathroom,” he added.
An enrolment study is also on the agenda for Saturday’s meeting, which is the board’s first regular monthly one of the new school year.
“Our board is very proactive in looking at trends for the future,” Madigan said.
He added the report, which is included for each of the schools, is intended to highlight possible classroom and staffing concerns in the future.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
