Nicholas Donaldson
Northwest Catholic District School Board trustees received another update on the St. Francis and St. Michael’s school consolidation project at their regular monthly meeting held here Saturday morning.
Superintendent of Business Seija Van Haesendonck noted her report only was a verbal one because she wanted to present the most up-to-date information from recent meetings.
She said a lot of work has been done so far, but the most exciting was the design team meetings held here over the last two days of November.
“We invited our school staff members to come back and look at some of the changes to the floor plan of the school based on the input and suggestions they provided in June,” Van Haesendonck explained to trustees.
She also said the team realized that after the June consultation meetings with St. Francis and St. Michael’s staff, many of them went back to their schools and spoke with their co-workers.
The November meetings then allowed those staff to come back with updated information and suggestions from groups that may not have been represented at the June ones.
“We also had the great opportunity to have Kelly Forbes, who is the new principal at St. Michael’s, attend and she just recently went through a renovation at her last school before she joined our board,” Van Haesendonck noted, alluding to the Donald Young School rebuild in Emo completed this past summer.
She said Forbes had great input based on what she had seen during the DYS renovations, and the architect mentioned he was excited to have her involved.
“There were some things we hadn’t considered in our past meetings. It was excellent,” Van Haesendonck enthused.
During the meetings, the group was looking at some final decisions for space, storage, and things like SMART board placement in the classroom, Van Haesendonck told trustees.
This included how the teachers expect to use the classrooms after they have seen where the windows and doors will be, different types of furniture needed, and differences between early years, primary, junior, and intermediate classrooms.
Other areas also were discussed, like the gymnasium and administration space.
“There were very concentrated meetings over a couple of days and I think some excellent work came out of it,” Van Haesendonck remarked.
Van Haesendonck also reported the pre-load is complete at the build site just north of the current St. Francis School, and the instruments that measure soil compaction are in place.
The site plan amended application also was completed the day before the meeting, and will be submitted to the Town of Fort Frances this week.
They now are working on the construction drawings to get the final independent cost consultant report done.
After it is finished, the board can submit the approval to proceed request from the Ministry of Education.
Van Haesendonck noted the ministry usually requires 80 percent completion of the drawings for this application, but the architect is aiming for 90 percent complete.
“At that point, when we receive approval, we can actually issue our construction tender,” she said.
Also during Saturday’s meeting, trustees:
•recognized Mme. Quesnel’s Grade 2 French Immersion class at St. Michael’s, as well as the student council and teacher leaders at St. Francis, for the monthly recognition of excellence;
•watched a video on the legacy of Catholic education, which eventually will be shown to all teachers;
•heard board reports on SEAC, the Joint Transportation Committee, and the Audit Committee;
•approved the 2016-17 Audited Consolidated Financial Statements draft; and
•reviewed the 2018-19 budget planning cycle, 2017-18 trustee honorarium, enrolment projection, director’s report draft, and revised organization charts.
