School projects await funding
With mechanical system upgrades planned for buildings throughout the Vernon School District, it still remains to be seen if the Ministry of Education will come through with capital funding for the projects.
Mechanical systems are due to upgrade at Okanagan Landing elementary, Charles Bloom secondary and at the board office. As well, the district is still waiting for approval for the replacement of school buses.
“We submitted our plans a year ago and we still don’t know the status yet of our 2010/11 plan, but we have a list of projects in place,” said Randy Hoffman, at Tuesday’s district board meeting. “The government doesn’t know yet, so it’s wait a see season at the moment.
“And we haven’t yet received instructions for our 2011/12 capital plans.”
On March 15, districts received word on their Annual Facilities Grant, with the Vernon School District allocated $1,676,604, close to last year’s grant.
Projects under review for use of this money include: site and parking lot improvements at various locations; roof replacements as per schedule of recommendations; painting to maintain exterior and interior paint cycles along with exterior upgrades as per the preventative maintenance program; flooring program; electrical and mechanical upgrades.
At the May board meeting, trustees will be required to pass a capital bylaw for some of these projects because some portions of the AFG funding has been deemed by the ministry as capital.
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