As the Francophone school division governing Jasper’s Ecole Desroches works towards a shared facility agreement with the Grande Yellowhead Regional Division, they are also making preliminary steps to make sure that their students have temporary arrangements in place if and when construction begins.

The Conseil Scolaire Centre-Nord is currently in discussions with the Jasper branch of the Royal Canadian Legion to determine if part of the legion hall could be transformed into classroom space.

“Both parties are interested,” said Laurent Bolduc, Jasper’s representative on the Francophone board.

“There was a meeting and they are starting to make some plans about how long it would take to turn part of the building into a school- I think its moving forward quite soon.”

Any arrangement would not be a permanent one, Bolduc was keen to emphasize.

“For us its a temporary fix just to put us in a better position,” he said. “If we do get a renovation of the facility then we will be out of the way it would make the process easier.”

Speaking from the CSCN’s central office in Edmonton, Directeur General Henri Lemire echoed Bolduc’s comments.

“If we were to go ahead with the major project with the school- all of that would take a minimum of 18 months. Now, what do you do with the kids,” he asked.

“In a town like Jasper there’s very, very little space. We could set up shop in the Legion during a construction period. The point now is, are we best to do that as soon as possible?”

The Legion has not had the occasion to meet internally about the matter, Lemire said, and the Fitzhugh was unable to contact representatives from that organization before press time.

Bolduc and Lemire are both eager to see a shared facility approach agreed upon for the current Junior/Senior High School building. Bolduc is in favour of the design concept known as “Option B”, which was presented at October’s public meeting in the high school library. The layout features an expanded gymnasium as well as new class space for Ecole Desroches while allowing both schools to function separately while inhabiting the same building.

“We’re basically turning one school into one and a half,” said Bolduc. “We would have a huge gymnasium that would be very useful for the community and the school as well. It would make a lot more sense than actually building another scrawny little gymnasium somewhere else.”

The estimated overall cost for this expansion, taking into account the cost of modernizing the existing high school building, comes to a  total of $13.7 million. This is slightly more expensive than the other option identified in the report currently being reviewed by both the CSCN and the GYRD. “Option A”, which would involve building a new gymnasium nearer to the Activity Centre and filling the current gym space with new classrooms, comes in at an estimated $12.4 million. It does not, however, have the recommendation of the architect that worked on the shared facility study and could also present problems with regard to the fire lane between the school and the Activity Centre, GYRD officials say.

Should neither shared option be agreed upon, Ecole Desroches would begin looking at building its own facility, something Bolduc wants to avoid.

“Personally I don’t really like that option,” he said. “I value the added advantages to the community a lot — it takes a lot less green space away from the town, and the last thing the Francophone parents want is to take green space.”

There is strong support from the Francophone school community to pursue a shared facility, Bolduc said.

“I guess our school board knowing what the parents want, its pretty easy for us to make our mind up,” he said. “Francophone parents see this a being a way for them to help out the GYRD because in fact they probably wouldn’t be able to get any renovation without the shared facility.”

The GYRD, meanwhile, is encouraging local parents and interested parties to meet with local board representative Gilbert Wall to address any concerns. The two boards also intend to present an update to the community at some point in the near future by way of a joint public meeting, something that had been requested during the GYRD’s public forum in the fall.

The shared facility report, meanwhile, is a public document but has not been widely circulated due to the limited number of copies available, GYRD spokesperson Nicole Merrifield said.

“We just don’t have a lot of copies of it but there’s no secrets in it,” she said, adding that people were always welcome to call the GYRD’s Edson office.