Friday, August 11, 2017 • Vol.28 No.41 • Neepawa, Manitoba
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New middle school announced for Neepawa
PHOTO BY KATE JACKMAN - ATKINSON
On Aug. 3, the Province of Manitoba announced funding for a new middle school in Neepawa. The school will be an expansion to NACI, enlarging the current middle years wing. The announcement also included funding for a new stand-alone day care centre. Both facilities are expected to open for the start of the 2019-2020 school year.
By Kate Jackman-Atkinson The Neepawa Banner A project five years in the making moved one step closer to reality last week. On Aug. 3, Education and Training minister Ian Wishart and Indigenous and Municipal Relations minister Eileen Clark, MLA for Agassiz, were at Neepawa Area Collegiate Institute (NACI) to announce funding for a new middle years school, as well as a stand alone child care centre. The new school will be an addition to the high school, enlarging the current middle years wing, which has eight classrooms. The 38,000-square-foot addition will accommodate up to 450 students in Grades 5 to 8 and will add nine classrooms, a gymnasium, library, band room, art room and multipurpose room. The idea is to create a school within a school and both facilities will share the sports fields, bus loop and parking lot. The new middle school will also result in changes to Hazel M. Kellington School, which will serve students from Kindergarten to Grade 4. “It’s exciting for the division, community and the kids… It’s fantastic for the community,” said Beautiful Plains School Division (BPSD) superintendent Jason Young. John McNeily, BPSD board chair, welcomed the announcement, saying, “This is an exciting day for the Beautiful Plains School Division and the communities and students we serve. With the announcement, we formally begin the exciting journey to provide additional quality learning space for our students and we are extremely appreciative of the government’s recognition of the space needs we
have in our Neepawa schools. We look forward to providing a new, uncrowded environment for learning in the middle years and we’re pleased the growing population of Neepawa will soon benefit from improved access to professional care for their children through the addition of the new, stand-alone child-care centre.”
Growing enrolment Over the last decade, enrolment in Neepawa’s schools has grown by 33 per cent and isn’t expected to slow down. Much of this growth has been due to expansion of the workforce at the HyLife Foods pork processing plant. About the funding announcement, Wishart said, “We’re very pleased to meet the needs of the community of Neepawa with a modern school and child care facility. This growing town is a great example of cultural diversity.” The sentiment was echoed by local MLA Clarke, who said, “This region has been reinvigorated by families from around the world who have relocated here, thanks in part to the success of Hylife’s pork processing plant.” Young said that the new school will help alleviate crowding in both Neepawa schools. Currently, the largest grade includes 105 students and Young said they are anticipating 100 students in each of the five grades included in the new school. The addition will expand upon the existing middle years wing, between the school and the division office. Young said they are planning to keep the existing soccer and football fields, which will be used by all students. For Young, this project began in 2012, when rising enrolment was creating space challenges at Neepawa’s
schools. He explains that the initial proposal to the Public School Finance Board, the provincial entity which funds schools’ capital projects, was for a stand alone middle school. In 2015, they revised their request to instead ask for a major addition to the high school, which would serve the middle years students. The division has been working on plans for the new wing and Young said that over the last few weeks, they have been working with architects to finalize the design work. Young explains that they are hoping to have tender documents out early in the new year, with ground breaking to occur in April 2018. They are planning to have the school open for September 2019. “It’s a tight timeline,” said Young. Once the new school is open, the modular classrooms at HMK and NACI will be removed. Stand alone child care facility The new stand alone child care facility will be located on the school grounds, along Mountain Ave. The facility will cover 6,000-square feet and accommodate 20 infants and 54 pre-school children, creating a total of 74 new spaces. They are also expecting the facility to be open for September 2019. At this point, Young said they are still finalizing the plans and it hasn’t yet been determined who will operate the centre. Unlike other recently announced schools, the Neepawa project won’t be built under a public, private, partnership model. Wishart said the final value of the project won’t be known until tenders are returned, though they are expecting it to be in the $10 million to $14 million range.