The Board of Education of the Prince Rupert School District will be meeting tomorrow night to formalize leasing agreements related to the school in Port Edward.
To keep the school operational for the coming year is a bit more complicated than just having the students return. The School District will be closing the school at 633 Sunset Drive on August 31, and an agreement has been drafted up for the District of Port Edward to lease the school building until September 1, 2013 when the new school is expected to be complete and open.
However, for it to be kept open as a school for the coming year, the School District needs to sublease the building back from the municipality for that same duration.
The School District closed building, so many factors were included in that decision. One of the reasons is that there is a lot of maintenance work needed for the building and the district is not prepared to pay that cost for the number of students there...In order to allow stud to continue to receive education in Port Edward, we had to come up with another solution," explained secretary-treasurer Cam McIntyre.
"Leasing back, the District of Port Edward would be responsible for any significant maintenance costs. If a light bulb goes we'll replace that, but if the boiler goes that wouldn't be our responsibility."
While the new school building has yet to be completed, the Board will also be voting on a 20-year lease of the facility running from September 1, 2012 to August 31, 2032.
"It's agreement to lease the property subject to the completion of the building. Once it is actually complete then we will sign the lease," said McIntyre, noting that there isn't payments being planned until the building is complete.
As well as the leasing agreement, the Board will be voting on approval of a Capital Project Bylaw approving a maximum of $500,000 towards the construction of the Port Edward school.
Look for more on this story following the meeting at www.thenorthernview.com