Plans for new SOSD school unveiled

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This article was published 05/11/2018 (2714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

Plans for a future elementary school in the Seven Oaks School Division have started.

 

SOSD superintendent Brian O’Leary and representatives of Landmark Planning and Design Inc. were at Amber Trails Community School on Oct. 30 to show local residents their plans for the kindergarten to Grade 5 École Templeton School, which will also have a daycare.

The open house presented information on the subdivision and rezoning application for 1288 and 1340 Templeton Ave. within Precinct E. 

Jeff Pratte from Landmark explained the City’s planning, property and development department has a proposed concept plan for the area that will be presented at the Lord Selkirk-West Kildonan community committee meeting on Nov. 19, and as long as it is approved the subdivision and rezoning application can be heard at the same period.

“It’s two existing properties that are going to be subdivided into a larger lot that will have the school,” he said. “It’s a little complicated because the school site is located within Precinct E and before anything could happen in this precinct, the concept plan had to be prepared by the city.”

Landmark’s boards say there’s a conditional use application required to allow the daycare and the school to be established in the rezoned area. They explained that elementary schools are usually located within residential zoning districts as conditional uses to ensure any development on the site is compatible with adjacent residential areas.

The proposed concept served to guide future development in areas B, C, and D of the precinct. A critical consideration of the concept plan is transportation. The proposal suggests two main north-south roadways, a local street at the school site, and a collector street towards the east end of the precinct. Public reserve areas, pathways, and retention ponds are also considered.

The subdivision would create two new lots and require a mandatory local road right-of-way, which will be constructed to serve the school’s parking and loading and would be extended to the south and east when needed, to open access to other properties.

The province announced funding for the new dual-track school in June. The school has a capacity of 450 students and will serve students who live in Amber Trails for French immersion and Amber Gates and the community south of Templeton for English. This school is urgently needed since five neighbourhood schools are over capacity by 600 students with 18 portables in use.

“We are packed. We are over capacity here (Amber Trails Community School) and building an addition, we are over capacity at Arthur E. Wright, (École James) Nisbet, (École Constable Edward) Finney, so this new school we need it on time, and it will alleviate some of the overcrowding,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary said École Templeton School will be similar to École Rivière-Rouge and Amber Trails Community School but not quite to the same LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards — École Rivière-Rouge received a LEED gold certification and Amber Trails Community School received a platinum certification.

The 56,423-square-foot school will feature lots of natural light, large classrooms and a well-developed schoolyard that O’Leary said should be an amenity to the community.

“This will be a more conventional mechanical system. The last two schools are ground source heated, this will be more conventionally heated. It will still be a power smart energy efficient building and is designed to LEED Silver (certification),” he said.

Being mindful of the environment and sustainable is an important feature SOSD has sought when building its new schools, O’Leary said.

“It helps us with our operating costs, and we also use the building as a teaching tool, so the kids see how it was built and understand the engineering and construction of the building.”

École Templeton School was designed by Jon Trenholm of LM Architectural Group and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2020.