Quote:
Originally Posted by beyeas
I am very very curious to see how it goes with the design for the new Lemarchant Elementary School. As you say, it is the province (and not even the department of education but the department of transportation and infrastructure) who builds schools, and it seems it is done on a "template" basis. However, this new elementary school will be the first one in a long long time that will be built in an urban setting. Given that the rest of the elementary schools built in the last number if years have all been in rural or suburban settings where there are not the same space constraints, I am quite curious to see what will be done.
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Going back about 10 years(?) and the 'Imagine' process of HRSB there were many people of the opinion that a school is more than a school and should include space for community use and perhaps daycare. The community use aspect would require HRM funding and a realisation that a structure that is open only for education purposes is a waste of precious resources. Talk to a community and ask all age groups what they want their money to produce.
Include a new school in the Infrastructure programme, previous Liberal governments in Nova Scotia refused to use the programme for university and school projects and Dalhousie received federal funds due to Mary Clancy, M.P. Dal put up the balance when Premier Savage, a former chairman of Dartmouth School Board refused to put any money into education projects. At the same time Savage had a row with Dave Dingwall over Dingwall's favourite project at CBU and Dingwall held up approval of Savage's pet projects until they cut a deal and a bingo hall was added to the Dartmouth Sportsplex where smoking was allowed despite the addition being named a Wellness Centre.
We can only hope that some time soon HRM and the province will make public their priority projects well in advance of political bickering and horse trading,