Sarah Rennie – LJI reporter

A government directive to cut over $510,000 from its operational budget will not keep the New Frontiers School Board (NFSB) from completing some much-needed renovations at area schools over the summer.

Four summer projects under the Building Maintenance Measure were approved during the February 4 meeting of the NFSB council of commissioners. The investments total over $3.88 million at the two regional high schools as well as two elementary schools.

These include plans for washroom renovations at Chateauguay Valley Regional High School in Ormstown that are expected to cost $646,300 before taxes, as well as a fourth phase of interior renovations at Ormstown Elementary School estimated at $664,985.

The third phase of a project to replace windows and doors at Howard S. Billings High School in Chateauguay was approved at a cost of $1,243,324, while a second phase of renovations at Hemmingford Elementary School expected to cost around $1,327,494 will take place over the summer.

The chair of the NFSB council of commissioners, John Ryan, says the projects were chosen because they were highest on the priority list. “It is a considerable investment,” he acknowledges, while admitting the envelope is smaller than in previous years.

“We still have a budget in terms of upgrading our buildings. We are trying to get them up to that satisfactory level across the system,” says NFSB director general Mike Helm. “We are doing the most that we can with the money that we have,” he maintains.

Other areas of spending on buildings have, however, been affected by government cuts to education. Proposals for expansion projects at Gault Institute in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and at one of the four Chateauguay elementary schools, as well as the Chateauguay Valley Career Education Centre, are all on hold. “I don’t anticipate that we will hear anything on these until the fall,” Helm concedes. “2025-2026 will be status quo for us in terms of those projects that are required.”