The public will get a chance to give its input on plans for a proposed J.W. Walker/Alberton/Alexander MacKenzie school around mid-April, the Rainy River District School Board decided yesterday.
“We just met with the architects [Prairie of Winnipeg] today and we decided to set a date for the ‘collective design process’ to begin,” Superintendent of Education Terry Ellwood said Tuesday.
Ellwood has sat on several committees involved in the decision to look into school plans.
“The initial stage will be in early April, when the firm will meet with the steering committee and plan for the public consultation,” he added. “Then, in mid-April, they’ll come and meet with the stakeholders.”
Ellwood noted the meeting likely will happen at J.W. Walker and be conducted in a workshop format.
“[Prairie] will guide the stakeholders through a process where they will present reasonable options, and then get a feel for what the stakeholders like or don’t like,” he explained.
“For instance, they might ask, ‘Where’s the best location for a kindergarten class, or a parking lot or gymnasium?’” added Ellwood.
Since the board successfully had gone through a similar process in 1997-98 when the new North Star Community School was built in Atikokan, Ellwood stressed the board felt public input was crucial to any fair decisions.
“The architects explained their consultation process to us when we were interviewing them. That played a big factor in us picking them,” he noted.
The board agreed on choosing Prairie after the architectural selection committee recommended them at the board’s regular meeting March 6.
The board first agreed to look into expanding Walker–and closing Alberton and MacKenzie–as well as moving Sixth Street into a renovated Huffman, in early December.
The decision came after a pupil accommodation committee and facilities review committee, which included school council members, confirmed some district schools are too costly to maintain as they are.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
