Plans confirmed for new Niverville school

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This article was published 15/06/2017 (2499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Education Minister Ian Wishart’s pledge of Niverville being a top priority has been put into action, as he announced Friday that requests for proposals from architectural consulting teams have been issued to finalize the design and tender for a new Niverville high school.

Though Wishart said in late April that schools in both Niverville and Winkler were top priorities for the provincial government, school divisions continued to await more official word.

Niverville’s new high school will have space for 450 grade 9 to 12 students with the capacity to expand to serve 550 students with the future construction of a four-classroom addition.

Winkler will be provided with a new K-8 school.

“A Niverville high school has been a number one priority in our five year capital plan for a number of years,” Hanover School Division board chair Ron Falk said following the province’s announcement.

“We certainly appreciate what they have done here for Hanover and for Niverville in particular given the rapid growth in the community.”

An ambitious construction schedule is being planned to match that rapid growth.

“We are working expeditiously to ensure there can be shovels in the ground in spring 2018 and students in the classroom in September 2019,” Wishart said in Friday’s announcement.

Wishart said the two school divisions have agreed to work with the Public Schools Finance Board on an expedited schedule that will enable project tendering in early 2018.

“It’s fantastic,” Falk said, “but everything has to happen starting right now.”

Last month, Hanover School Division superintendent Randy Dueck had surmised, with design and construction taken into consideration, a new school would likely only be ready in September 2020.

The timeline from the province has advanced deadlines significantly.

Falk said a sod-turning for the project should be expected in late winter. He anticipated construction would take at least a year and a half.

Niverville trustee Ruby Wiens will lead the division’s building committee, which will also include trustees Shannon Friesen, Cyndy Friesen and Falk.

Shorter timelines will reduce opportunity for consultation, Falk acknowledged, but he expected the division would gather feedback from staff in the late summer before design plans are finalized in fall. In 2010, a drawn out planning process was cited by Hanover as the reason for delaying the opening of Steinbach’s Clearspring Middle School by a year.

The province said in its release that the school will include regular classrooms, science labs and an art room plus other specialized spaces such as a large library, computer rooms, resource teaching and guidance areas, life-skills suite, multipurpose room, band room, drama room, a large gymnasium and fitness room.

Falk said construction costs for the school would be about $300 per sq.-ft. The province indicated the school would be 66,700 sq.-ft., putting costs in the range of $20 million.

A location for the school has yet to be confirmed but should be finalized in the next month, Falk said.

Both schools in Niverville and Winkler will have child-care centres for 20 infants and 54 preschool children.

The projects are also expected to be designed to achieve a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver rating.