BONNYVILLE – Alberta's Minister of Infrastructure, along with members of the board of trustees for Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS), got a sneak peek of the ongoing construction of Bonnyville Centralized High School (BCHS).
Minister Prasad Panda made a stop in Bonnyville on Monday, June 5, where he went on a tour of BCHS with members of the NLPS school board, the contractor, and Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA David Hanson to see where the project is currently.
“It was fantastic,” Panda told Lakeland This Week. “I was quite impressed with the state-of-the-art facility and all of the details and designs they did, starting from the gym to the utility room with all the high tech (amenities) and even solar panels. This is the most modern learning facility I have seen in a rural community.”
NLPS board chair Arlene Hrynyk agreed.
“It’s a beautiful, well thought out facility,” she expressed. “I think the community will be so pleased.”
There are still some parts of the construction that need to be finished, but Panda was confident the keys would be handed over to the school board by the end of July.
“We’re going to turn it over to (NLPS) so they can get the school ready for the kids when they go back to school in September.”
Hrynyk was glad they would have enough time to set up before classes officially begin in September.
“I’m glad to know it’s going to be done on time. They’re going to be able to start transferring and start moving stuff in soon, but we’ll get the keys at the end of July. With all things considered, it will be a lot of grab-and-go, but we’ll have the kids in a great learning centre by September, for sure.”
This was just one stop of Panda’s Lakeland tour. He has been on the road visiting local constituencies including Bonnyville, St. Paul, Smoky Lake, Cold Lake, and Fort McMurray during the week.
According to Panda, the BCHS modernization was a top priority for him. He said the main reasons were feedback he received from locals about how important the project was for the community and when he spoke to BCHS’ first principal, Ernie Isley.
“He talked to me and said he had a lot of attachment to this because he was the first principal. He requested me last year to get this done on time so kids can have a better facility. Working with the local MLA and school board, we accelerated it. I put in some extra effort to finish this school on time and on budget.”
Although construction will wrap up in time for the 2021/22 school year, there have been a few delays since the Bonnyville high school was approved for modernization in the spring of 2017. The project was part of 25 school projects in Alberta that the province allocated $500 million towards.
The final design for BCHS includes an NBA-sized gymnasium, full-sized kitchen, more natural lighting, and an updated common area, among other upgrades.
NLPS moved all of the students and staff to the Bonnyville and District Centennial Centre at the beginning of the 2019/20 school year, anticipating to have them all back at the high school in January 2021. However, construction didn’t start until April 2020 and it was decided to keep everyone at the C2 until the end of the 2020/21 school year.
After the long wait, Hrynyk said she was ecstatic to get BCHS staff and students back into the facility.
“I think the community is going to be very pleased and we’re excited to have an official grand opening on Oct. 1, where the broad community will be able to come in and enjoy it just like we did.”
She added, “I think (Minister Panda) was as excited as all of us. We’re very thankful for all the support we’ve had from them and I mean, even down to keeping our kids at the C2. He was very pleased. When you see that in action, he was quick to say it was one of the nicest projects in the province. I think he’s just as excited to see it come to an end because we’ve been poking and prodding for so long to get it done.”
Panda told Lakeland This Week he hopes to come back to town for the grand opening celebration.
