The school bell is set to ring on a new K-9 school just outside Okotoks in two years.
The Town of Okotoks began work this week preparing a site outside the town’s north boundary near 32 Street for a new Foothills School Division school.
“We want to move it along, we want to facilitate the school division getting in the ground, getting facilities up and running for the educational benefit of their students,” said Okotoks Mayor Bill Robertson.
The Town will install underground infrastructure, build access roads and grade the site during the fall and winter months so construction on the school can begin in the spring.
“It is installing the underground utilities and then of course the site itself would have to be stripped and regraded and then there’s also the road connection to 32 Street, that’s the main work,” said Nancy Weigel, Okotoks corporate and strategic services director.
The Town purchased the 40-acre site on the west side of 32 Street for $4.8 million last year and officially received title for the land on Sept. 7.
The Town and division agreed to locate a K-9 school at the site in October 2015 and the provincial government approved construction of the school two months later.
The school site will take up approximately 5.4 acres of the overall site and the remaining land will eventually become home to a community campus with possible cultural, recreation and education uses.
The provincial government will oversee the construction of the school.
Drew Chipman, assistant superintendent of corporate services, said construction of the school is expected to start in spring 2017 and everything looks to be on track for opening date in fall 2018.
He said the division is preparing a request for proposals for an architect and contractor for the project.
Chipman said a committee will discuss specific components and details for the school and they will spend the winter months working with the contractor and architect.
“As soon as we get the prime contractor and architect on board then that’ll flesh out what exactly the school is going to look like, what the design is going to be,” he said. “From there we’ll get the design built out in terms of plans and we’ll go to tender on that.”
Modular classrooms
Modular classrooms were added to two Okotoks schools this year.
Three modular classrooms were added to Percy Pegler School for this year.
Chipman said it will ease space pressures at the school, which had a utilization rate of more than 95 per cent.
“Each modular is based around 35 to 30 students,” he said. “So there’s about 75 to 90 more students that can be at Percy Pegler.”
One modular classroom is being added at the Foothills Composite High School.
Chipman said it is not part of the modernization project at the school and will be used as a general classroom.
