INNISFAIL - The board of the Chinook's Edge School Division has approved the conditional sales of two surplus pieces of property, including Bowden's long-standing Instructional Media Centre (IMC) site.
The conditional sale of the Bowden site was approved at the April 11 board meeting. Board members also gave the green light to moving playground equipment from its former River Glen School property in Red Deer to Penhold's Jessie Duncan Elementary School.
The school division recently entered into a conditional agreement to sell just over four acres of River Glen property, which Chinook's Edge still retained following the transfer of the school to the Red Deer Public School District in 2014. That transfer was part of the overall strategy for the opening of Penhold Crossing Secondary School that same year.
Officials with the school division declined to release financial details of both conditional sales.
The Bowden deal comes as a result of space opening up in Innisfail with last year's closure of Chinook Center School, which is physically part of the school division's Central Office. The IMC in Bowden had been in place for more than 20 years and was once deemed a convenient central location for the distribution of instructional materials, including videos and books.
"It was very useful for us, but once we went through changing up with the closure of Chinook Center School that created new space centrally, so that was part of the board's overall perspective from a corporate point of view in trying to create efficiencies," said Kurt Sacher, the school division's superintendent of schools. "With the new space in Innisfail we were able to move the IMC into our building here in Innisfail, which is still very central. The cost of maintaining and running that building in Bowden is no longer with us so that created an efficiency as well."
Shawn Russell, the school division's associate superintendent, said the efficiencies with having the IMC in Innisfail will mean a savings of more than $30,000 a year. He said the Bowden sale is still waiting for ministerial approval, adding there is a condition the buyer has to meet, which could take a few weeks.
The IMC in Bowden had two employees and both have been transferred to its new location, which became operational under the same IMC name in early 2018.
As for the River Glen property, Russell said just over four acres of property had been subdivided off at around the time of the transfer process with Red Deer Public School District. Since then a deal for the property had been struck. Ministerial approval has been made but the buyer must still meet a condition by the end of the month, with possession planned in mid-May.
"The playground equipment is on there. We did offer it to Red Deer public to move it onto their property but they decided not to. As a result we didn't want the playground equipment to go to waste," he said. "So we will be relocating that to Jessie Duncan School, which they are in need of, because last year we added four classroom spaces onto there and this spring we are adding another four.
"We've increased the population of that school by almost 200," added Russell. "The additional playground equipment there will be welcomed by the school community."
He said the playground equipment will be moved to Penhold, with Jessie Duncan Elementary School picking up the cost, in time for the beginning of the 2018-19 school year.
