ALMAGUIN – The battle is over.
A deal has been struck between the Near North District School Board (NNDSB) and the Ministry of Education on the final design and funding for the new Almaguin high school.
Annnounced Tuesday morning, the deal paves the way for architects to complete blueprints of the high school and start tendering in time for this coming spring construction season.
Near North chair Al Bottomley says the deal is a compromise, but one that will give Almaguin students “a great school.”
“We’re going to try very hard now to get this school going,” said Bottomley.
The deal was reached late Monday in a series of meetings between board officials, engineers, architects, MPP Monique Smith and communications with the MoEd.
In the deal the geothermal heating system is being set aside, but Bottomley stressed that the school will still be very efficient.
“A lot of those green components are still in the school. It’s going to be built smart with great insulation, as efficient a system for natural gas as you can get and a lot of other factors. This is going to be the greenest school anywhere around here and I would say it would be in the top 10 of green schools in the province,” said Bottomley.
In the press release announcing the deal, titled “The new Almaguin Highlands Secondary School will be the ‘greenest’ Near North school,” the board laid out a host of features to back the claim. Amongst them are a thought-out orientation that will maximize natural lighting and exposure to northern winds; natural ventilation of the gymnasium; a water based heating system that will be capable of both heating and cooling the school, including heating or cooling any room in the school at anytime of year; energy efficient lighting that will run on occupancy sensors; a light reflective roof; a grey water recycling system; and a rain water collection system.
“The school is going to be excellent. It isn’t going to be the ideal school, but it’s going to be a super school and we’ve got to let people know that,” said Bottomley.
The deal also brings to an end the political battle between Bottomley and Nipissing MPP Smith. Smith had been pressing for work on the school to go ahead, stressing that the school was amongst the first to be approved by her government under the prohibitive to repair replacement program and still wasn’t ready to go ahead with construction.
Speaking before the announcement, Smith acknowledged it is unusual for a local member to get involved in negotiations with a school board.
“I normally wouldn’t get into discussions about a specific project, but it is time for this project to move forward,” said Smith.
She stressed that while geothermal heating was likely not a viable option for the high school for a number of reasons, there are options still available to the board to ‘green’ the school, including the installation of solar panels.
To reach the deal between the NNDSB, pressure was applied to the board by the MoEd. Bottomley reported to the News on Friday, Jan. 8, that he had received word that the ministry was going to reject a resolution passed by trustees in December to spend just under $5 million from reserves on the high school. The decision, Bottomley said on Friday, would mean not only the end of the geothermal heating system, but significant cuts to the school’s plans, from which officials had already chopped 3,000 square feet and the configuration allowing for an indoor track.
But by Tuesday, Bottomley was expressing relief the deal was done.
“I got wound up about (geothermal) and I’m not ashamed of that. The kids might have got me more wound up than I should have, but people should start listening to them,” said Bottomley.
And geothermal isn’t completely out the window. Bottomley says the heating system can be retrofitted to use geothermal if the opportunity ever arises down the road.
And he stressed that it is still a great school that is being built.
“We’ve got a great design that lets light into every room. We’ve still got the snoezelen room (a controlled multisensory stimulation room used for people with mental disabilities). We’ve got a great special education section – those special rooms haven’t been touched. The shops are intact. Getting the shops is a big concession and people have to appreciate that. The science labs may be upstairs, but they are still going to be better than anything that you can find in North Bay or anywhere else for that matter. The I.T. component is going to be brand new state-of-the-art. This is a super school,” said Bottomley.
With the deal sealed, the next step is for the architects to complete the final detail design and start a pre-bidding process to determine interest and preliminary estimates from general contractors capable of completing the job. It is hoped that actual tenders will be called for in February.
“I want to see this place overrun by construction people come May,” said Bottomley.