March 16, 2009

Portable School to be Added to Okanagan Mission Secondary

KELOWNA, BC: School District employees have been hard at work retrofitting and refurbishing the 10-portable annex at the old Dr. Knox Middle School in preparation for a move to Okanagan Mission (OKM) Secondary later this year.  The portables are receiving new flooring, paint, and lighting and the interconnected hallway is being widened to accommodate lockers for secondary students. 

When the portables are complete, some of the six existing free-standing portables at OKM will be removed for use elsewhere.  The 10-portable annex will not only provide extra space, but the cluster of rooms will reduce heating costs and make it easier for staff to supervise students.  The additional classrooms will also create space to add much-needed science labs in the main school building in the future.  The revamped portable complex will be located on a recently-acquired lot adjacent to OKM and this required rezoning for educational use. 

“The rezoning application, which was initially submitted in October 2008, was recently approved and allows us to correct a lot of the problems with the existing parking lot configuration,” says Judy Shoemaker, Planning Manager at School District No. 23.  “An expanded lot will make it possible to provide an on-site drop off zone for parents and separate bus and handicapped parking from the general parking lot to make it safer.  It will eliminate some unsafe driving aisles in which parking spaces back out into a busy driving lane.  We also plan to create one-way in and one-way out lanes to improve the traffic flow.  By creating more school parking spaces, we will also eliminate some of the on-street parking congestion.”

“Looking further into the future, if the current growth of the Mission-area continues, the student population at OKM will grow by approximately one classroom (or 25 students) each year.”  This will require significant changes to the existing school, which is already utilizing portables.

“We have applied to the Ministry of Education for funding to build a permanent 300-student addition to OKM,” says Shoemaker.  “This is another reason we need to expand the parking lot and remove the tennis courts.  Accommodating students for 10 months of the year is evaluated as a higher priority for the School District than accommodating the tennis courts for a short period of time each year.  Planning ahead and doing work on the parking lot all at once will ultimately save the District money as well as providing a safer and more neighbour friendly traffic situation.”

Approved by the Superintendent and Judy Shoemaker on March 16, 2009

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For comments, please contact:

Judy Shoemaker, Planning Manager, (250) 491-4004

Scott McLean, Principal, Okanagan Mission Secondary, (250) 764-4185

Mike Roberts, Superintendent of Schools (250) 860-8888

For background information, please contact Lisa Harrison lharriso@sd23.bc.ca or 470-3284.