Peggy Revell
Plans for building the new Robert Moore School here are still rolling along.
“We’re still on schedule,” said Raymond Roy, manager of plant operations and maintenance for the Rainy River District School Board.
Planning currently is underway with a “cross-section” of people who sit on the building committee, noted Roy, including teachers, principals, board staff, parents from the school councils, and community members.
So far, the committee has met a few times, including a video conference with Ian Hill of Evans Bertrand Hill Wheeler Inc., the architect who will be designing the school.
“Right now the architect has been coming and meeting with the design committee, so we’re really looking at preliminary concepts,” said Education Director Jack McMaster.
“We’re talking about which kind of rooms should be in close proximity to others and what would the design of a futuristic classroom look like,” he explained.
This possibly could include having areas of the school specifically-designed for different age levels of kids, “break out” areas that allow students to get away from their desks to get work done, smaller rooms for student and teacher assessments, and where these types of areas would fit best, he added.
“We’re looking at technology, and we’ve got some very, very talented people in our tech department who are sitting on our design committee,” McMaster said, although the design isn’t “carved in stone” as of yet.
Hill also will be travelling to the Peel School Board, in the Brampton/Mississauga area of southern Ontario, to get a first-hand look at the newly-opened Oscar Peterson P.S., which is held up by the province as an example of good design, noted Roy.
The building committee also has been looking at what other schools have done via slide shows.
Planning at this point also means ensuring all the programming needs are met with the floor space that has been allocated, explained Roy.
He estimated the final schematic layout will be completed within the next couple of weeks, followed by cost assessments and drawings.
Anyone with questions or concerns about the new can contact Roy at the board office (274-9857).
“This is so exciting to be able to try and build a school that will serve kids 50, 60 years from now,” said McMaster, adding news and details on the project eventually will be posted on the board’s website at www.rrdsb.com
“For me as a director, it’s really exciting,” he enthused. “I’m so looking forward to the school opening and the kids moving over.”
Students from F.H. Huffman School, which the board has opted to close, also will be accommodated in the new Robert Moore.
