Roof renovation time

BY RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

Lester B. Pearson school board's council of commissioners pushed through no less than

23 resolutions to undertake school renovation projects at their various buildings at a meeting last Monday, allocating a combined total of almost $7 million towards all of them.

"This is part of a grant given by the provincial government," explained Martin Sherman, board commissioner and head of its facilities and securities committee.

In 2003, the provincial government announced a five-year plan stretching from 2007 to 2012 that earmarked $30 billion for infrastructure reparations of schools and hospitals. Sherman said a large part of the grants they have received for the projects announced last Monday were given from that amount.

"School environments have to be safe both physically and mentally," said Véronique Marin, central director of the Cartier Adult Education Centre. She said she was "absolutely happy" that money came through for the Beaconsfield school, which is due for window frame reparations and related roofing and bricking projects, at a price tag of $371,200.

Marin said Place Cartier, like most schools under Pearson's jurisdiction, keeps engineers on staff that conduct check-ups on the school and work closely with the board to let them know of any necessary changes. The board's facilities and securities committee then sits down and decides which schools should be prioritized for spending depending on their needs.

"A lot of our buildings are 30 to 40 years old," said Sherman, which explains why so many of them require some kind of renovation. He added the work involved is nothing fancy, but merely the type of infrastructure update that is needed to keep the schools safe and sound.

Lynne Bergeron, a secretary at Purcell Academy in Pierrefonds/Roxboro, which is undergoing a roofing, windows and doors renovation project, said the school was very happy with their grant coming through as well. "It's been due to be done a long time," she said with a laugh.

She said the school's windows and doors "are very old and in need of repair."

At Purcell, most of the roofing project is already finished, and the doors and windows are expected to be replaced over the summer vacation, while students are away.