Skip to content

Patience needed for Pegler renos

Ecole Percy Pegler School students and their parents got a lump of coal for Christmas last week. Now, they have to be patient until the real present arrives sometime in 2011.

Ecole Percy Pegler School students and their parents got a lump of coal for Christmas last week.

Now, they have to be patient until the real present arrives sometime in 2011.

They received word last week from the Foothills School Division the modernization of the K-6 school will not be done by Jan. 1 because it has been delayed once again.

The modernization was supposed to be completed by the start of the current school year in September of 2010.

This time, no date was given for when the work will ultimately be completed. So, once again parents and students will have to practice patience.

The Pegler School family has been split since the fall of 2009.

The Kindergarten to Grade 3 students are in modular classrooms while the older Grades 4-6 students have been using facilities at the neighbouring Okotoks Junior High School (OJHS), including one of the school’s gymnasiums.

As a result, not only is OJHS short one gym, the community has one less recreation facility.

Although no date has been set for when the work will be completed, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The Foothills School Division declared the general contractor, Bayview Constructors Inc. in default of its contract.

As a result the division is now working with a bonding company, AXA, to find a solution.

Finding Bayview in fault of its contract was not something the division took lightly, but it was a step that likely had to be done.

The division has come under scrutiny for the several delays it has taken to get the work done. It has now taken a bold step to rectify the situation.

Maybe the division, Bayview and parents shouldn’t have been stuck with the problem in the first place.

School divisions must take the lowest tender from qualified bidders for projects.

It can only be assumed Bayview had the lowest tender.

If that is the case, the community needs to know if there were any red flags or concerns before a shovel was put into the ground.

A review of Alberta Education, Infrastructure, the division and Bayview’s role in the tender process should be done. It should also be released to the public.

Answering these questions is a gift parents and students have earned after being good for more than a year.




Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks