“It looks worse than it is,” Emberly stated. “We’ll open up right on time.”
As she was speaking, crews had just taken out the old boiler in pieces and had the new one out in the hall ready to install. As well, the roofing work was well underway. Emberly said progress has been going well, and though Tyler Shiels, the Turtle Mountain School Division Supervisor of Buildings and Maintenance has done the oversight on the project, she has tried to attend as many of the construction meetings over the summer as she could. She added the maintenance staff also worked hard to get things ready.
“Everyone has been working hard. That’s why I’m not worried. It will be a little different than normal, but people put so much work into it, I’m not worried.”
Emberly said apart from a few changes, the K-8 students will not notice too much of a difference. Most of the work is being done on the high school end. This means shifting a few classrooms around. A map was to be sent to parents this week, but in the main it means there will be three classrooms in the library, one in the staff room and one on the stage. Phys. Ed. classes that would be in the small gym will be held outside if the weather is decent.
For lunch, kids will stay in the classrooms for now, and there will be no hot meals to start. Despite the ongoing work, the south and west doors will be accessible by the time school opens. Parking will be back to the way it was in the spring and the buses will still do pick-up on Rae Street.
One of the big issues teaching students in a building under construction is obviously safety. Emberly said the construction people will be walling off areas that are “no-go zones”, which is especially important for young ones who cannot read well enough or do not know the building. As well, they will be running a few fire drills in the first few weeks to get everyone acquainted with different escape routes.
“That will be a big focus,” Emberly stated. “We want all of that clear. Safety is the big thing.”
The principal wants the community to rest assured the mural on the east side is safe. In fact, that spot will look a little different. As they cannot match brick, designers and the school came up with a new scheme for that door and immediate area. Brick will be brown, with the trim around the window looking like marble and the tin previously black being grey.
“It will look like a brand new addition. We wanted it to look timeless.”
There is no definite timeline for the end of the work, but Superintendent Tim De Ruyck said they expect full completion by mid-October. He figures areas of the school that are not accessible now will slowly be re-introduced to the stream as happened in Killarney a few years ago.
Emberly said her job is to make sure education can go on in the building and it can. She added it would be another interesting experience for all involved.
“It will make the year exciting,” she said. “People remember the years where different things happened. Different staff members have different stories of ‘that was the year we did….’ Everyone will look back and say ‘that was interesting.’”
by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff