The final chapter in the creation of the New Wheatland Crossing School is the disposal of the former schools it replaced.
Last week demolition began at Standard school. Superintendent of Golden Hills School Division Bevan Daverne explains this was the plan from the beginning.
“That land is in the process of being handed back over to the Village of Standard,” he said. “Our agreement with them is we would remove the building. That sort of saves them from the liability of that property and the actual land goes back to their ownership.
He explains as part of Wheatland Crossing School funding, the division had funding to deal with the buildings. That way there would not be vacant buildings left in the communities that were unusable. They will be demolishing the former schools in Standard, Hussar, and Gleichen.
“These are large buildings and very expensive to maintain, and there is a lot of liability associated with them if you do have to take them down,” said Daverne.
He said they worked with communities to see what would work best.
“In the case of Rockyford, they elected to keep the building, so we transferred ownership of that building to them, in the case of the other three schools we worked with Wheatland County and the Village of Standard and the local administration in Hussar. We worked with them to establish what they wanted to see happen, what would be best for the community,” he said.
Daverne said after they are complete at Standard School they will be moving on to do work at the Hussar school site and the former Central Bow Valley School in Gleichen.
Photo Courtesty Kelly Reeves
