Over the next year, Summerland Secondary School will be getting a facelift, thanks to funding from the province’s School Enhancement program.
The $1.2-million project consists of an exterior upgrade and roof replacement, with the Okanagan Skaha School District investing $100,000 and the province supplying the remaining $1.1 million.
Doug Gorcak, director of facilities for the Okanagan Skaha School District, said that money will come from the capital budget, rather than the operating budget. He said the district puts about $1.2 million a year into facilities.
“We will probably rework those budgets ... do what we can to free up that $100,000,” said Gorcak.
The bulk of the work is going into the roof of the school, where Gorcak said there are large sections that need to be replaced.
“With roofing you get 25 to 30 years out of it and you need to start replacing it before you end up with a catastrophic event where all of a sudden it leaks and runs into the school,” said Gorcak.
Work of the facade of the school is intended to reduce the chance for vandalism by making the roof less accessible, according to Gorcak.
“There are several areas of the building that are easily accessed from the ground,” he said. “What we will be doing is attacking those key areas to ensure that it is not easy to get up on the roof.”
The projects have to be substantially complete by March 31, 2017, and Gorcak estimates work probably won’t begin until August. He doesn’t think the ongoing work will have much effect on students in their classes, though.
“We’ve done projects like roofing and this type of stuff throughout the school year before on other jobs,” said Gorcak. “There might be a little bit of inconvenience where they lose an exit for a period of time, but the schools will just revamp fire plans so they don’t include those in their escape plans.”
The province is spending $45 million through the School Enhancement Program to improve 80 schools. Districts applied to the Ministry of Education this spring, and successful projects were chosen based on need and priority.
“Strong financial accountability enables the government to improve the infrastructure of our schools through the School Enhancement Program,” said Penticton MLA Dan Ashton in a release.
The School Enhancement Program is part of ongoing capital funding from the province to replace ageing facilities and improve seismic safety. Last year, there were 109 school improvement projects.