Milk River School Enhancement Project pushes gymnasium expansion

The Milk River Community School Enhancement Committee is looking at creating a gymnasium enhancement project.

“The Milk River Community School Enhancement Committee was created on the heels of the announcement from Horizon School Division that their number one priority project was to amalgamate Erle Rivers High School and Milk River Elementary School on the site of the current Elementary school,” Mandy Court, Chairperson of the Milk River Community School Enhancement Committee, said.

After participating in a Value Management Session in December 2017, Court said that the schools realized that how much they were at risk of losing if a ‘right sized school’ was implemented into the community by the Government of Alberta.

“One of those things would be the size of our gymnasium,” Court said. “Because of our school enrollment numbers, the government of Alberta only allots a regulation sized gymnasium that is just big enough to play basketball, but not big enough to seat spectators. This is not acceptable in our community. We like our sports, we like to cheer on our teams, and we want plenty of space to do so.”

Court said that with research gained through the Value Management session and reviewing details of the government’s spending plan for new schools and renovated schools, it was determined that in order to build a larger gym, the community would need to raise an additional $500,000 to add the extra square footage to what the Government of Alberta would provide, should the project be approved at the next budget release.

“With limited time to between the future approval of this proposed amalgamated school by the Government of Alberta, and the actual build date, we felt we needed to begin the fundraising process now,” Court said.

“We did this so that when the project is approved, we will already have some funds in the bank to used to apply for grants to help reach our financial goals, and ultimately be in a position to provide the very best for our students and the "Right Sized" school according to our community needs and not just according to what the Government of Alberta says is the "right size" for our small community.”

Court says that the committee is in the very beginning stages of their fundraising efforts for the gymnasium project after setting aside a surplus of $9,000 from the $300,000 that was raised for a new playground at Milk River Elementary School. Funds were also successfully raised through concession sales at a local Christmas Craft Fair.

“Our great desire is that all of our community will feel as passionate about this project as our committee does, and throw their support behind us, just as they did when we were working to raise funds for a new playground,” Court said.

The next fundraising event, Court says, will be the Pasta With A Purpose dinner at 5 p.m. on January 30, 2019 that features both silent and live auctions and be held at the Milk River Civic Centre.

“Our community is amazing, and can accomplish amazing things, now is the time to use those amazing skills to help create the potential for the Proposed Amalgamated School to be everything that we want it to be, and everything our youth deserve it to be,” Court said.