Brown seeks nod
A former cabinet minister in the Pat Binns Progressive Conservative government has thrown his hat into the ring for the party’s nomination in District 21.
Philip Brown announced on Facebook recently that he is seeking the nomination. Two others, Summerside city councillor Norma McColeman and Brian Ramsay — the party’s candidate in the last election — are also looking to be the party’s candidate for District 21 Summerside-Wilmot.
“Over the coming weeks I look forward to meeting with residents and discussing the issues and concerns that are important to our community,” Brown wrote in his announcement.
“There are many struggles in living dayto-day and public service must be about working hard to improve the quality of life for everyone. This is why I am returning to active politics, politicians cannot make life perfect but we have a responsibility to make it better. That is my goal.”
Brown was the PC MLA for Cascumpec-Grand River from 2000 to 2007, and was tourism minister from 2003 to 2007.
With the exception of a new bus parking lot, there will be little change onsite when staff and students return to the city high school in September.
Two temporary additions at the east end of the building have been taken down, one of which will be used as a construction trailer.
A pre-construction improvements tender package to modify the existing aviation workshop to accommodate carpentry that is moving out of the school and into the nearby CTEC building for the start of the school year.
Every area of the 165,000-square-foot facility will be renovated, with a new window added to each of the more than 30 classrooms and a total of 50 windows in the plan. “Everything is going to be within the existing footprint, so we’ve hired a construction manager, APM Engineering Services,” said Richardson. “They’ve done sort of a draft phasing plan, which is now being reviewed by the school.”
That plan is now in the hands of vice-principal Gerald McCormack, who sits on the planning committee, and principal Jeff Clow, who are reviewing how the project will impact curriculum delivery. Floor plans will be presented to school staff during the first two weeks of September.
“When we do areas of the building then people just have to be moved to other areas or make sure that we have sufficient teaching spaces,” said Richardson.
By doing the work in phases over three years, the hope is there will be little disruption to staff and students, he added.
He explained that the school — currently designed for 1,020 students — only has 750 students, making it easier to move classrooms from one area to another to allow the work to be done. When the renovations are complete, the school will be able to accommodate up to 1,000 students.
Tendering packages should be started by the end of October. The overhaul of washrooms, gymnasium change rooms, the main administration area, student services and classroom blocks will be done during the summer of 2017 and 2018.