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Cold Lake Elementary School taking shape as crews start on structure

Students heading to Cold Lake Elementary School at the end of the month will hear the ringing of steel along with recess bells, as progress on the new school continues to move forward. “It's super exciting.
The new Cold Lake Elementary School is beginning to take shape, with the gym wall being built and the foundation for the building going up. Soon, crews will be starting with
The new Cold Lake Elementary School is beginning to take shape, with the gym wall being built and the foundation for the building going up. Soon, crews will be starting with the structural steel that recently arrived.

Students heading to Cold Lake Elementary School at the end of the month will hear the ringing of steel along with recess bells, as progress on the new school continues to move forward.

“It's super exciting. The kids, when they return from summer they'll see these guys pounding away and working away. My staff, when they return, they'll be all excited and the parents and the community,” said principal Kathy McKale.

So far the school is right on schedule and on budget, with the total cost coming in at just over $15.3 million. Construction started back in April, shortly after spring break. Local contractor GenMac ACL was selected as the design builder, with Alberta Infrastructure overseeing the project. The new school has been advancing smoothly and workers are ready to move ahead with structural aspects.

“The foundation work is now completed, the bringing in of the utility corridors and the utility work is actually ahead of schedule, and the gymnasium block walls are almost completed,” explained Robert Storrier with Alberta Infrastructure. “The structural steel has now arrived and instillation will be beginning shortly. In the next couple of months, in addition to the structural steel work taking place, they'll also be working on the metal decking, start work on the external walls and the roofing.”

The new Kindergarten to Grade 4 school will be a state-of-the-art facility with the capacity for 600 students. McKale said it's a much needed update to replace their current out-dated school.

“This is super important to us. This is going to be modern, modern stuff – modern technology, modern bathrooms, everything.”

McKale explained that the goal for crews now is to get the building closed in before the snow starts flying. Storrier added that work will be continuing throughout the winter months in order to get the new building ready for the 2016/'17 school year.

“It's pretty standard. We're right on budget and on schedule. With all projects there are wrinkles but you can usually fix them overtime, if you're late on something you make it up over the course of the project,” said Storrier.

While workers keep progressing on the school's structure, there have been some exciting decisions made regarding the interior colour scheme of the new Cold Lake Elementary School over the summer break.

“We're going with nice earth tones, soft blues and greens. Then we are just going to jazz it up, it's going to be wild,” said McKale.

She added, “We'll do the earth tones to start, to make it very appeasing for the children. Each teacher gets to add their own character, their own style, to their classroom. It will become a very personalized learning environment because it's ownership from the teacher and the students, all the artwork and everything they decide to put on the walls to enhance the environment. It'll be very stimulating and enriching for the kids.”

Students will soon be entering through the doors of Cold Lake Elementary to start their last school year in the current building. There won't be any sad goodbyes though, McKale said she already can't wait for the end of the school year to know that they will finally be moving into the long-awaited new Cold Lake Elementary School.

“This year will be so exciting as we watch this school being built and our dream become a reality. I feel as principal that we're so very blessed and thankful that we were awarded this school. Onward we go with the project.”

Once construction is done on the new building, crews will have to demolish the exiting building to make room for the parking lot and bus lane, which will be located off of 16 Ave. in front of the new school. The new Cold Lake Elementary School is slated for completion in the summer of 2016 to be ready for students next fall.

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