With Notre Dame High School's (NDHS) lease at the Centennial Centre set to expire this June, local officials have started to debate the future of the classroom space in the building.
Town and MD councillors had a joint meeting at the C2 last Tuesday to discuss financials and approached the topic of the soon-to-be open space when discussing long-term goals.
“It is no different then when Portage College moved out. We went and found Notre Dame High School. When Notre Dame moves out we will go find somebody else,” said C2 CAO Gary Krawchuk.
The Lakeland Catholic School District signed a lease agreement with the C2 in August 2015 in order to gain some additional space while NDHS underwent renovations. All of the Grade 9's at the local high school were moved over to the C2 and have used the classroom space full-time.
With the majority of the renovation work done at NDHS the Grade 9 students will be moving back over to the main campus in September, resulting in the classroom space being left empty once again.
“Our focus is still education, so there is some work to be done to try and seek out possible tenants,” said Mayor Gene Sobolewski. “We are seeking post secondary right now. That is going to be the focus.”
Sobolewski and Reeve Ed Rondeau will be facing several large hurdles in order to get a post secondary institution back into that building. As of right now, Portage College has stewardship for Bonnyville, and therefore has the sole rights to operate post-secondary programming in the community. The school would have to wave those rights, or be forced to wave them, in order for another institution to move in.
Only the provincial government has the ability to overturn or amend the rights to the region. If Sobolewski and Rondeau are serious about finding another educational institution they will have to seek provincial help.
“Once we have some solid leads as to who is interested and what we will be doing we can go to the minister and have some discussions with them,” said Sobolewski.
There is also the option of using the existing classroom space and working it into a building expansion, which would involve attaching a new high school to the C2. BCHS has been listed on the provincial government's capital plan, so Northern Lights School Division representatives could look into such a possibility.
“Ultimately the goal is to have some educational component in here because that is what the space was designed for,” said Krawchuk.
