School’s boiler on its last legs

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/03/2012 (5236 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Second World War-era heating system at Winnipeg’s smallest school is on a death watch.

The original 1943 boiler in the older portion of Chapman School could die at any time.

Pembina Trails School Division has an emergency plan to move the students and teachers to Royal School immediately, should the boiler suddenly go this winter. The tiny elementary school on Roblin Boulevard has shrunk to 75 kids — half its size of a decade ago.

While the 1974 portion of Chapman is structurally sound and its boiler is doing just fine, that part of the school is too small to handle all the students and teachers in the kindergarten to Grade 6 school, which also has a daycare.

The Department of Education said Friday it will keep Chapman School open regardless of what happens, even though it acknowledged the public schools finance board (PSFB) told the division last year it is too costly to fix the boiler when it dies, and too costly to fix other major structural problems in the older section of the school.

“When it goes, we are not going to get a replacement,” superintendent Lawrence Lussier said.

“The structure is in need of significant upgrade — that part of the building is not salvageable.”

But a provincial spokeswoman insisted Friday the province will figure out a way to keep Chapman open, though she would not elaborate.

“The position of the PSFB has not changed,” she said.

“We remain aware of the condition of Chapman School. If the boiler fails or another problem arises, we will work toward a solution that allows the school to remain open as a safe, healthy learning environment for students, as we would do for any school that may require repairs,” she said.

Lussier said the newer portion of Chapman isn’t big enough to accommodate all the kindergarten to Grade 6 kids, though that space has enough room for the daycare centre.

Pembina Trails had planned several years ago to close Chapman and move the students and teachers to Royal, only to have the NDP government suddenly impose a moratorium on school closings in the spring of 2008. That ended plans to close 13 shrinking schools across Manitoba.

There are exemptions from the ban, should a school community agree to close a school. That’s what happened to Graysville School near Carman, which got so small parents of the handful of remaining students agreed to close Graysville and send their kids to Carman.

The provincial enrolment report showed Chapman had dropped by another six kids this year.

Another Pembina Trails school to drop to low enrolment this year is Ralph Maybank School, which plummeted to 120 students from 146.

Ralph Maybank was placed under review for possible closure by the former Fort Garry School Division prior to 2002, but trustees never acted, primarily because Ralph Maybank is virtually landlocked from other schools by major roadways such as Pembina Highway, McGillivray Boulevard, and Waverley Street. The school had stabilized around 150 kids.

Lussier said the families of about two dozen children had to leave the neighbourhood unexpectedly to find rental housing.

“There’s an apartment complex close to Ralph Maybank that had close to the 26 kids. They had to move because of renovations” to a building that may be converted to condominiums, Lussier said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca