New School Opening Delayed

Jeff Green | Jun 06, 2013

Citing the impact of a roofers’ strike on the construction schedule, Sharbot Lake High School Principal Heather Highet said last week that the Granite Ridge Education Centre will not be fully operational at the start of the school year in September.

“Until the roofers’ strike, construction was ahead of schedule,” Highet said, “and now the roof is finally going up, but even the contractors will have to wait until it is up and everything is completely dry before they move on to the next step.”

Highet told a group of parents at a meeting in the cafeteria of Sharbot Lake High School last week that the Limestone Board has developed two scenarios for next fall, Plan A and a Plan B. Under Plan A, the new school will be substantially completed by September and the current building will have been demolished. Students in grade 5 or 6 and up will attend Granite Ridge in September, “but students from Kindergarten to grades 4 or 5 will attend at the current Sharbot Lake Public School building until construction is completed,” said Highet.

This includes students who are attending Hinchinbrooke Public School this year and are slated to move to Granite Ridge.

Plan B is a more complicated scenario. It will be put into place if the new building is not substantially completed by September. In that instance students between grades 6 and 12 will be accommodated in the existing Sharbot Lake High School (SLHS) building.

Under Plan B, the existing school will be demolished sometime during the school year. Highet did not know how long the demolition and clean-up would take and SLHS needs to be removed in order for the parking lot and landscaping plan at the site to be completed.

Within the next two weeks a decision is expected concerning which plan will be put into place.

School staff are particularly anxious to find out which plan will come into effect.

“Either we have to pack everything up and put it into storage because this building is being torn down, or we have to prepare to receive students here in the fall, and then move everything over to the new school when it is ready,” Highet said.

Whichever stage the new school is at come September, the bussing for the students to Sharbot Lake will be in place. Gord Taylor, the Executive Director of the Tri-Board transportation consortium, said that most of the students throughout the wide region that is covered by the new school will be picked up at about the same time they were in the past. He acknowledged that a small number of students will be facing a bus ride of over an hour, “but not any more than previously.”

James MacDonald, who is currently the vice-principal at Hinchinbrooke, will be the new vice-principal at Granite Ridge. He said that based in part on a survey of all the students who will be attending the new school, the new school colours will be blue, green and silver, and the school’s mascot will be a Gryphon.

“The choice of colours and of the Gryphon, which has three parts, both recognize the fact that the new school is a coming together of three schools,” MacDonald said.