By Emily Keller

peace wapiti schools

PWPSD excited to begin work on the Harry Balfour School replacement

Mar 12, 2020 | 12:39 PM

Full funding for the Harry Balfour School Replacement has been confirmed by the province.

Bob Stewart, Superintendent of the Peace Wapiti Public School Division, says they found out about the confirmation on Monday.

“We met with the minister of education earlier this week, and it was shared, we would be receiving full funding for the replacement school for Harry Balfour School. The proposed site for that replacement school is adjacent to the Five Mile Hall, east of Grande Prairie. So, yeah, we’re quite excited.”

In the initial 2019 Capital Plan announcement in November, only the design funding of the school was included.

“2012, we started with the Clancy report, where the recommendation was to remove Harry Balfour and get it outside of the City of Grande Prairie,” said Stewart. “So that we could reduce the ride times for our elementary students that are coming in from the rural areas through the busy core of the Grande Prairie area, and the first piece of that was the Whispering Ridge school in the Whispering Ridge area.”

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Stewart says it is too soon to know what the cost of the project will be, or how much money the province will provide.

He adds that this funding confirmation allows them to work on the early stages of the project, such as collaborating with the County of Grande Prairie on various aspects, including installation of municipal services and road access and completing the design phase.

Once those are finished and shovels are in the ground, Stewart says he expects the construction to last about 18 to 24 months.