Hanover announces location of Niverville school

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This article was published 18/07/2017 (2472 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Whirlwind plans for a new Niverville high school took further shape on Wednesday morning as Hanover School Division announced an agreement with the Town of Niverville to purchase a three acre parcel of land, west of the town’s arena, to be used as the site of its new 66,700 sq-ft. high school.

With school slated to begin in that new school starting in Sept. 2019, timelines are tight to move the project along.

The school is expected to serve 450 students from grade 9-12 and be built with a capacity to serve 550 students.

At the site on Wednesday morning, Hanover superintendent Randy Dueck touted possibilities of synergy between the new school and a future community multiplex, which is proposed to neighbour the site.

“It’s important because of what future possibilities can happen for our students,” Dueck said. “I think this school is going to be a great school and provide for our students what Niverville Collegiate hasn’t been able to provide to a senior years group. It will be great on its own. It will be even better when we can use facilities next door in a multiplex.”

The “community campus” model strengthens community ownership and provides additional value for public funding, he said. The model, it was added, will also reduce environmental impacts and enhance environmental stewardship.

It is expected that the school project will cost about $20 million to compete. The multiplex, still in its fundraising stages, is targeted in the $15-$16 million range. Though that project is still not yet a sure thing, Friends of the Plex fundraising chairman Clare Braun, who was on hand for the announcement, said money-raising efforts are well underway and that they remain confident about multiplex costs.

Niverville mayor Myron Dyck expressed optimism that with Wednesday’s announcement of the school location, that the community had “gone significantly up the queue” as a project with the ability to attract provincial and federal funding.

Dueck said the division had considered another site but the opportunity to tap into existing infrastructure made this location ideal. He mused there are future cost savings to be achieved too, noting a Public Schools Finance Board study is looking into the benefits of constructing the school with the aim of connecting to geothermal heating through the proposed multiplex in the future.

The division has agreed to pay $900,000 for the three acre parcel and is entering into a 99-year-lease (at a rate of a dollar a year) for an additional 9.77 acres, which will form the school yard. The town took ownership of the land recently through an agreement with developer Cornell Friesen, who has additional land set aside for residential development in the area.

Though the division has been able to secure a deal that provides opportunity for cost efficiencies, Dueck said the public should expect the school’s $20 million price tag to remain the same.

“It’s how much more can it be…we’ll be able to do more as a result of it. We would not have achieved as nice of a school, if we had gone to a different site. We are able to achieve more with the same amount of money,” he said.