No money flowing for leaky school

“Setting priorities is not something we take lightly. At the end of the day, they need to come and tell us what’s going to happen to the leaking roof.” Jasmine Gallant

École Évangéline’s leaky roof will have to wait.

With no funds allocated in the capital budget, it will be a year before the aging building can be dealt with using capital money.

The Kindergarten-to-Grade 12 school in Abram-Village has been the No. 1 priority for the French Language School Board for a while now, says Janine Gallant. She’s been president of the construction and renovation committee since 2011.

Gallant was “very involved” in the capital budgeting process for the school. She’s confident they were clear that Évangéline was the board’s top priority, so she’s troubled that Education Minister Jordan Brown has indicated he felt the message was confused.

“Setting priorities is not something we take lightly,” Gallant said.

“At the end of the day, they need to come and tell us what’s going to happen to the leaking roof.”

Emile Gallant, chairman of the Commission scolaire de langue française (CSLF), does not understand the province’s decision.

“We followed their directives when submitting our capital plan,” he said.

The CSLF and the province have had a rocky relationship the last number of years.

Brown called communication “inconsistent”.

“I would acknowledge a frustration that we have; we have acknowledged (the frustration) with the French language school board previously,” he said.

One recent source of discord came during renovations at École-Sur-Mer. Emile Gallant noted Three Oaks Senior High’s budget for work grew as project costs increased, but the French school’s budget did not.

“We’re asking to be treated the same,” he said.

Brown said there were “significant frictions created” between a member of the CSLF on the construction committee and a provincial representative during the planning stages of ÉcoleSur-Mer’s renovations, “over what the school should and shouldn’t have”.

The CSLF’s wish list grew throughout the planning process.

When the board requested a gym and soccer field bigger than what was allowed in the provincial construction manual, the province decided the additions to the plan needed a separate capital request. That’s what moved the École-Sur-Mer project onto the 2019-20 capital budget.

Brown said he is aware of École Évangéline’s leaking roof, issues with heating in the school and leaky windows. But he maintains it was never submitted as a top priority.

“There hasn’t even been a request to attempt small fixes to those things, so that’s part of the frustrating piece of this.

“In the capital budget, there’s a $2-million allocation for school capital repairs which are defined as anything that’s over $10,000 repair. And again, those have to be put to us in a priority.”

Emile Gallant said the school underwent some patching last summer, which was funded under the emergency repairs budget for work under $10,000. But, more repairs are required.

École Évangéline’s long-term needs aren’t going to be sidelined, said Brown.

“We have indicated that we are prepared to assess the school… we are in the process of seeking approval to get $500,000 to spend on assessment of schools in P.E.I., generally,” he said.

The assessment will include schools under the English and French school boards, and Brown said Évangéline school with be “one of the top few.”

In a news release dated Nov. 26, the CSLF and the Société Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin (SSTA) offered to “collaborate with the province in conducting a cost-benefit study in 2019-20 to determine if a new school or a major renovation offer the best option for the region”.

“The CSLF remains open to proposals and a dialogue with the province in this regard, since it has specialists on board,” said Emile Gallant in the release.

Brown stressed government’s intentions to keep working with the CSLF on the school’s infrastructure needs.

“We do our utmost to be as fair as we possibly can be, in very sense of the word, to French first-language students on P.E.I. Certainly, the Acadian culture is one that we value tremendously.”

He added they need to balance the money, so they can offer “the best education that we can for the money that we have.”