Completion of Sage Creek school up in the air

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This article was published 06/06/2024 (785 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg school’s construction has been threatened in the 11th hour after the province said it may not finance its completion.

The Louis Riel School Division may have to incur millions of dollars in debt to finish construction on a 900-student, K-8 school in Sage Creek, which is due to open to students in the 2025-26 academic year.

“Schools take out loans for things, but not to build a school,” said Louis Riel division board chair Sandy Nemeth.

In early May, the NDP government informed the school board it may not approve the school’s fifth and final tender, valued at approximately $6.7 million, owing to “cost-saving measures.”

The board has been seeking updates on the final tender since late 2023, Nemeth said, which should have been a forewarning for the delay and possible funding cut.

The province asked the division to find savings in the $63-million project, which Nemeth said is now nearly impossible to do.

“If the province asked for cost savings in earlier tenders on concrete and masonry, we could have achieved it, but it’s too late,” she said. “This school is is well on its way to completion, there’s nothing to scale down. You can’t just unbuild what’s already been built.”

The tender is for finishing touches on the building, which includes windows, doors and furniture.

Nemeth said the division has little choice but to take out a loan to complete the school. The board of trustees will vote on the loan at its June 18 board meeting.

Education minister Nello Altomare’s office declined to comment on the province’s tenders, citing byelection blackout rules. (A byelection in the Tuxedo constituency is set for June 18).

The school, announced by the former Progressive Conservative government, broke ground in July 2023. It was one of 23 schools announced by the Tory government to free up capacity within the school system.

During the 2023-24 school year, 17,070 students we re enrolled in the Louis Riel School Division, up from 15,153 in 2020-21.

The division’s student population grew by five per cent in the last year alone.

The new school will offer French immersion, which will take the pressure off nearby École Sage Creek School. Once construction is complete, the latter will be designated only for English program students.

Altomare’s press secretary, Naline Rampersad, directed the Free Press to ask the school division about cost overruns on the project, but Nemeth wasn’t aware of any significant over-expenditures; the project was approved in a phased-tender system which saw the cost spread over five separate tenders, four of which were approved by the previous Tory government.

In December, the board was told to wait for the release of the NDP’s budget in April to hear back about the final tender.

“And we still continue to wait,” Nemeth said.

In their first budget delivered on April 2, the NDP set aside money for École Mino Pimatisiwin School in Seven Oaks School Division and École Sage Creek Bonavista in Louis Riel School Division.

The board is scheduled to meet with Altomare on June 25.

“I have to remain hopeful that (Altomare) is going to understand the implication of it, because that is $6.7 million that would otherwise be spent in classrooms,” Nemeth said.

An emailed statement from Altomare says his office “look(s) forward to our meeting in the coming days to discuss plans for the completion of the school.”

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca