Staff
After more than a year of planning and consultation, the Rainy River District School Board has finished designing the new school set to be built in Mine Centre
“We’ve finalized the design,” Raymond Roy, the board’s manager of plant operations, said about the status of the new building that will replace the older Mine Centre School.
Planning for the new school began back in 2008 with the formation of a building committee and the hiring of Evans Bertrand Hill Wheeler Architecture Inc. (also the architect for the new school being built in Fort Frances to replace Robert Moore).
This summer, the Ontario government announced public board would receive $4.8 million to build the new school in Mine Centre.
With the design finalized, the plans now have been provided to the cost consultant for pricing, noted Roy.
“We’re still looking for approval from the Office of the Fire Marshal and just [that] kind of the paperwork,” he said, adding the board will be looking at going to tender as early as March.
The new Mine Centre School will be roughly 17,450 sq. feet in size, with one junior/senior kindergarten room as well as three junior/intermediate classrooms.
It also will feature a computer lab/library, a learning circle room, special education room, language room, kitchen, and a gymnasium that will be about 3,200 sq. feet in size.
Building a new school for Mine Centre is one of the tasks the board has taken on since the school was amalgamated with the board back in September, 2008.
Prior to the amalgamation, Mine Centre was considered an independent “school authority” by the province.
The current school was deemed “prohibitive to repair”—meaning that in its current state, the cost of repairing it would surpass other alternatives.
Minutes of the Mine Centre School’s building committee meetings, floor plans, and more information about the future school are available online at www.rrdsb.com
