User sought for intermediate wing

School board puts out call to group to step forward to lease LDSS wing to save it from the wrecking ball

LAKEFIELD - The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board has put out a call in a last-ditch effort to save the intermediate wing of Lakefield District Secondary School by finding another user for it.

The intermediate wing has been slated to be torn down this summer as the board continues with a $6.38-million project to create a new junior kindergarten to Grade 8 school called Lakefield District Public School that will open in the former Lakefield District Secondary School building.

Public high school students in the Lakefield area are now attending Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School in Lakefield after trustees decided last spring to close LDSS as a high school.

The site continues to be used as an intermediate school for Grade 7 and 8 students this school year. At the end of the school year, Ridpath Junior Public School, across town on Ermatinger Street, will be closed and the students will be relocated to the new Lakefield District Public School at the LDSS site on Bridge Street.

The new school won’t need any of the 32,000 square feet of space in the intermediate wing, so the board had intended to tear it down to provide more room for school bus loading and parent pickup of students.

But the board has had a change of heart and on Friday issued a call for expressions of interest from any community partners willing to lease the intermediate wing space for five years.

The board is willing to lease the space to a partner for five years with a rent of about $120,320 annually (utilities not included), which is based on a cost recovery lease rate of $3.76 per square foot.

The site has a community facility zoning from Selwyn Township.

Trustees will review any bids received and then make a final decision on whether to tear down the intermediate wing.

“Since the intermediate wing is not separate from the rest of the school facility, there would be additional cost recovery charges related to separating the actual structures and their corresponding utilities,” board spokesman Greg Kidd stated in a release.“If a facility partner was deemed complementary to the school environment, it would be necessary to reconfigure the current design of the school’s traffic access, parking and people flow. Therefore, a quick response is required in order to finish the school for students this fall.”

Under board policy, partners seeking to least the space must:

Protect the health and safety of students.

Be appropriate setting. Align with school board values. Be of a cost-recovery nature. Expressions of interest can be submitted to: Greg Kidd, Manager of Corporate Affairs, Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, 1994 Fisher Dr., Peterborough, Ont., K9J 6X6, or by email to Greg_ Kidd@kprdsb.ca. for a school