School District 60 approves $3.3m minor capital plan

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — More than $3.3 million in minor capital spending has been approved for School District 60, ranging from new buses to electrical work.

During the September 22nd meeting of the School District 60 (SD60) board of education, the trustees approved a $3,374,366 capital plan draft from staff. 

The submission detailed funding requests from seven schools and five requests from the district’s transportation facility for new buses. 

The five bus replacement requests varied in cost from $178,993 to $247,082, with a total price for all five of $974,366. 

The existing five buses have between 246,508 and 368,920 kilometres on them, and were constructed in 2013, 2015 or 2016. 

Each replacement request detailed issues with the existing buses with some on multi-year backorder waits for essential parts or high levels of structural damage and others with a history of “throwing codes” or breaking down on the Alaska Highway on its route to Mile 101. 

Of the funding requests for projects from schools across the district, one is for playground structures, two are for roofing, one is for repairs to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, one is for plumbing, one is for building insulation and one is electrical. 

In Fort St. John, Bert Ambrose Elementary School requested $400,000 in funding to replace two boilers that have been deemed “beyond repair” with higher efficiency units, and C. M. Finch Elementary School requested $300,000 to replace insulation in all the exterior walls. 

Fort St. John’s Ecole Central Elementary School of the Arts and Dr. Kearney Middle School also had funding requests included in the plan for roofing repairs. Ecole requested $285,000 and Dr. Kearney requested $500,000.

At Clearview Elementary and Junior Secondary School  in Goodlow, a new playground structure has been requested to the tune of $200,000, due to the current structure, which is wooden with a base of gravel and rock, being considered inaccessible. 

In Rose Prairie, Upper Pine Elementary and Junior School requested $275,000 to replumb water tanks which are currently underground, bringing them above ground for accessible maintenance and increased volume on site. 

Taylor Elementary School put in a request of $140,000 for an electrical project to replace the school’s fire alarm panel. 

According to the summary, the fire alarm panel needed to be replaced because the unit is “too often in a troubled state,” and fire safety contractors had flagged it as being “unreliable.” 

The panel is not repairable, and will need to be fully replaced at a cost of $140,000 sometime during the 2025-26 school year.

Angela Telford, the district’s secretary-treasurer, confirmed to Energeticcity.ca the fire alarm had passed its latest fire inspection, and despite the wording of the report, it still worked as intended. 

All the requests were approved by the trustees, and while no exact dates were given for when the work would be completed, the requests for funding were submitted for the 2025-26 school year.