‘Multi-use’ completion date pushed back

Fort Frances High School won’t be in its new facility until December, 1998, project manager Phil St. Cyr told local public school trustees at last night’s regular board meeting.
A late start on “multi-use” construction at the Westfort site has forced Daoust Construction to reschedule its timetable. But work on the project has gone fairly smoothly since then.
“Under the budgeted amount, we are $21,000 under budget currently,” St. Cyr said, noting the contracts for pilings and structural steel came in at very good prices.
“We’re on schedule with respect to the revised schedule, which isn’t very different from the original,” he added.
Most of the work on the project this year will be done on the interior although St. Cyr noted the structural steel for the college, the gymnasium and the corridor in between has to be up before the year is out.
“No matter what happens, that area must be built,” he stressed, noting the structures will provide protection from the elements for other construction work to continue.
The current Westfort building has been gutted. St. Cyr expected excavation work to begin in the next two weeks, and the steel work to begin in October.
Trustees still have to make some decisions on additional millwork (cabinets, lab desks, etc.), as well as deciding if screened windows should be added to the hollow-metal classroom doors for security measures, both of which cost extra money.
But St. Cyr warned trustees not to expect the final cost of the building to be much under the estimated price despite the fact it is under budget now.
“One of the things we have noticed overall is the materials are going up in price–and is going up fast,” he said. “The market in Ontario is picking up. The best we can expect is to meet the budget we have laid out.”
Also at last night’s board meeting:
othe local Education Improvement Committee will be meeting in Fort Frances on Sept. 16 although the provincial EIC still has not provided what the groups feels are concrete guidelines to make recommendations to the new board (the local EIC chairs and co-ordinators will be travelling to Toronto for a meeting later this month);
otrustees accepted the resignation of Daniel Jones, native language teachers at Fort Frances High School (Wilfred Cyr has taken over his position);
oNancy Fretter’s appointment to the position of principal at Donald Young School in Emo was ratified;
oTrustees ratified the appointment of Kerri Tolen to the position of classroom teacher at Donald Young School;
oKrista McNabb-Willams was accepted as the new classroom teacher at Nestor Falls School;
oConnie Schwartz’s appointment to the position of classroom teacher at Fort Frances High School was ratified;
oTrustees accepted David Shuh as the new French as a Second Language teacher at Fort Frances High School;
oNorma Rumpel’s appointment as a classroom teacher at Sturgeon Creek Alternative Program was ratified; and
oJack Vandenbrand was appointed as a contract bus driver for the board.