The hustle and bustle at some schools never stops, even during the summer months.
The Simcoe County District School Board has approximately 50 construction projects ongoing around the region, some big and others small, as work ramps up with the first day of school nearing. That means longer days at some job sites.
Most students return to school on Tuesday, Sept. 4, followed two days later by the kindergarten kids.
“We’re always pretty busy, but the weather has been very co-operative this year,” said Kim Pickett, the board’s manager of design and construction. “Last year, there was quite a bit of rain and it delayed a few projects. The weather has been on our side for most of the summer, so we're trucking along and things are going well.”
In the city of Barrie, the board has a few significant projects on the go.
“We’ve got some large-scale work happening at Eastview,” Pickett said of a $1.5-million project, which includes a “renewal” of the high school's family studies area, as well as HVAC system improvements and renovations to the main entrance to improve accessibility.
At Algonquin Ridge Elementary, tucked away in the city’s south end on Golden Meadow Road in the Dock Road area, exterior work is in full swing.
“A number of years ago, we had an issue with frost heave and it caused aesthetic issues with the masonry,” Pickett said. “The mortar and the brick starting cracking.
"It wasn’t a structural issue, but it didn’t look great," she added. "Masonry was falling off in places, so we’ve undertaken to remove the masonry and put it back to get rid of the aesthetic issues. We’re taking care of that.”
Not far away but still a few years down the road, the board is also building a new secondary school on Mapleview Drive East, at Prince William Way.
“It isn’t as much of a time crunch as our regular projects, because it will take a couple of years to get finished,” Pickett said.
The board hopes to open the new south-end high school sometime in 2021, “but there are a lot of factors that can impact that, weather being the most uncontrollable factor we have to deal with,” Pickett noted.
“Assuming we get good winters and good summers, and that we can continue with the construction schedule we have in place, 2021 is what we’re aiming for,” she added. “It may be a September opening, but it’s really too early to tell.
"When it’s ready, we’ll open it.”
A January 2021 opening is possible, but a lot of things would need to fall into place.
The new south-end Barrie high school is the board’s only major construction project underway at the moment.
“We did get funding from the ministry back in the winter for three new elementary schools, including one in Oro-Medonte, one in Bradford and one in Wasaga Beach,” Pickett said. “But they are still at the planning stage and we’re trying to finalize the exact properties and exact designs, and then we’ll be moving more toward tendering and then construction.”
With all public buildings mandated to be fully accessible by 2025, removing barriers for people is a priority for the board.
“We are slowly working toward that deadline,” Pickett said.
Over the last several years, the board has gone down its checklist to retrofit various schools to make them more accessible, which is a constant battle to bring older schools into line with present-day standards.
Accessibility upgrades are being completed at Sunnybrae Elementary in Stroud as well as at Twin Lakes Secondary School in Orillia.
“We start with the older schools, obviously, before doing something like a major addition or a new build,” Pickett said. “The schools that were built in the '60s and '70s, people didn’t think of these things.
"We have a running budget for accessibility-specific projects," she added. "We go through each year and try to tick a few off.”
At Innisdale Secondary School, in Barrie’s south end, the stairwells have fallen into a state of disrepair in recent years, Pickett said, so they are being updated with new LED lighting and a fresh coat of paint.
While some projects may be considered minor, Pickett said they are still things that need to be done.
The board has a $12-million budget for “annual renewal and school condition improvement” projects, not all of which are happening this summer, however.
“Even though it was budgeted for (2017-18), some projects got pushed off, but that’s the amount of money we’re currently working under,” said Pickett, adding some funding, such as school additions, would come from other areas, like Ministry of Education capital projects.
Growth is also a major force the board must deal with in a timely manner.
In Collingwood, a four-classroom addition, at a cost of approximately $2 million, is underway at Mountain View Elementary School to accommodate growth.
“The population is growing consistently,” Pickett said. “It’s not as rapid as some parts of the county are, but it’s definitely been growing significantly over the years.”
Other elementary schools in Collingwood are also slated for additions, she noted, including Cameron Street Public School.
With so many school buildings scattered throughout the county, keeping up with roof repairs is also a constant and unending battle.
One such roof project, which is being phased over two years, is underway at Couchiching Heights Public School on Laclie Street in Orillia. W.H. Day Elementary School in Bradford is also getting a new lid.
At Nantyr Shores Secondary School in Alcona, the cooling tower is being repaired to keep Innisfil students at a bearable temperature when it’s sweltering outside.
With the back-to-school date looming, the board hopes to have as many of its facility projects as possible completed before the kids return.
“There’s a couple of areas where we may have to still be doing some work in the schools, but if we’re not finished, we generally try to wait for a break in the year,” Pickett said. “If there’s anything that still needs to get done, we would wait until Christmas holidays to finish it up.
“We don’t want the students going to school in construction time, obviously, but there are times when we can’t avoid it,” she added, using the Mountain View addition as an example. “It started before school let out, but it was sectioned off and students weren’t allowed in that area.
"There are ways to make it work, but we prefer not to.”
