By Curtis Galbraith

Schools

Demolition work underway at St. Patrick School

Jan 7, 2021 | 8:00 AM

Demolition work is underway at St. Patrick School.

Grande Prairie & District Catholic Schools superintendent Karl Germann says work has been going for several weeks.

“For the past three or four weeks, the salvage crews have been inside the school and they’re actually taking all the asbestos out of the school. They’re also trying to recycle as much material as possible. So, everything from taking out the light fixtures to taking out some of the wooden millwork that was still left over, there wasn’t a whole lot, as well as trying to scrap some of the metal and controls and the fire extinguishers, all that kind of stuff that was left in the school.”

Germann says the building will be demolished by the end of January. A replacement will be built close by on the same site.

He adds a lot of design for work the new school has been completed. The next step will be a tendering process.

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“The province is going to go through a tender process. They have to finish the design during the tender process, so it’s a little bit of a design-build project. We should be able to get construction started by this summer, so we’re looking forward to that and that would take a year at best to complete that school. That school should be open by fall of 2022.”

Germann adds the board still has to decide where the school’s students will come from.

“We’re going to bring them some final information in the next month or two. They’re going to decide what to put into that school. So, is it going to be a local community school or is it going to be an overflow school for another program? We’ll wait and see for that one. That’s a decision they have to make here in the spring, so we have to get moving and plan boundaries and make sure that we start to move forward with materials and staffing and all that other stuff that’s needed for our school.”

Germann says the current St. Patrick School was built in 1978. He adds the foundation is solid, but a dirt basement led to problems with mold and water that shortened the life of the school and that is was cheaper to build a new one than to try to renovate this one. He adds new schools are planned to last for 50 to 75 years.