PORT HASTINGS: The Strait regional school board (SRSB) is now targeting early March for the formal movement of its operations from the board’s current central office in Port Hastings to the SAERC high school site in Port Hawkesbury.
The board’s superintendent of schools, Ford Rice, confirmed that the major renovation project launched last summer has reached its final stages and suggested that the remaining work on the board’s new office space at SAERC should move quickly.
“Even though it seems like it’s been a long period of time, since it’s been September since we’ve gotten this going, I think that, at this stage now, you’ll see work moving relatively fast,” Rice told reporters following this month’s regular board meeting in Port Hastings.
“All the drywall is done – we’re now involved in plastering, and most of that is done as well. A lot of the primer coat is being done in the school. So we’re getting to the process now of starting to install the drop-ceiling in the school, doing a lot of the electrical installing, the lighting panels, so we’re getting to the process of getting ready.”
With this in mind, Rice, who made two visits to SAERC earlier this month, is hoping for a successful conclusion to a project that has seen SAERC’s Communications, Media and Technology (CMT) move from the building’s second floor to its ground floor, a reconfiguration of the SAERC Day Care space, and the departure of the Cape Breton Family Place Resource Centre (CBFPRC) to Tamarac Education Centre (TEC) in early July.
“We’re still hoping that we’ll be moving towards closing this regional office and moving to SAERC sometime in early March,” said the superintendent.
“I mentioned to the board members and our board staff that we’re hoping to do sort of an orientation event for them, so they can see the work that’s been completed prior to us moving the entire office there. So we’re hoping to do that.”
Rice added that the renovations at SAERC have occurred without any disruption to staff, students, classes or programs at the Port Hawkesbury site.
“Over the course of the history of the schools, they’ve undergone major renovations…,” he pointed out.
“Our staff has been very adept to working within a certain area, particularly at SAERC, where the majority of it is on the second level of the school, in a confined space, where there would be no disruption to students whatsoever.”