Jordan Small BANFF
Canadian Rockies Public Schools is looking into the possibility of expanding Banff Elementary School’s multi-million modernization.
CRPS will apply for the inclusion of a second phase to the BES project, which would include demolition of the 1957 and ’69 sections, modernization of the 1992 sections, and construction of a new gym.
In a recent letter to the BES School Council that brought the vision of the two-phase project, CRPS Board of Trustees Chair Carol Picard wrote it has become transparent the cost to house students elsewhere during construction will not be sufficient.
“In the last several weeks our senior administration team has been intensively studying the options for modernization of Banff Elementary School. It has become increasingly clear that the $1.5 million cost of ‘decanting’ the school … will severely restrict the scope of what we will be able to do on the actual upgrades,” Picard wrote.
“In light of (Alberta) Premier (Jim) Prentice’s recent announcement of additional money for school construction and modernization in Alberta … the CRPS board has decided to approach BES as a two-phase construction project, which will eliminate the need to temporarily move students for that year.”
In October, Prentice announced $43.2 million in funding school boards this year to begin planning for 55 new schools and 20 further modernizations.
The initial BES project saw $8.5 million put forward by the government to update the aging school, however, the funds for the old, or first phase, of the proposal were put forward years ago and would have only made for monetary changes, said CRPS Superintendent Chris MacPhee.
“For us that wasn’t sufficient enough moving forward into the future,” said MacPhee.
“In conciliation with Alberta Infrastructure, what we decided is we’ll move to a phase two so we apply again during this school year for the second phase of funding in regards to modernization to that school.
“One of the reasons this is beneficial to us is we would have had to find a place to move 380 students and in Banff right now that would be virtually impossible.”
The student numbers at BES have increased by approximately 60-70 students in the past six to seven years and money would be better spent going into the facility rather than relocating the students up to two years.
“Right now what we want is our students to stay in the facility as long as possible while we’re doing phase one and phase two (should phase two be approved by the government),” MacPhee said.
MacPhee said this is a “wonderful opportunity for us to be able to slow down too and see what some of the community needs are,” particularly with the proposed new gym.
“We have some major challenges around our gym, and the size, so this is the opportunity to see whether this gym is a community based gym and how does this look going forward,” he said.
