Prince George, B.C. – The Prince George School unanimously approved its five-year capital plan summary at tonight’s monthly public board meeting.

Topping the list is a renewed call for $9.3 million to increase capacity from 600 to 750 students at D.P. Todd Secondary School.

Other items in the plan include:

• $500,000 for the replacement of the dust collection system in the industrial education wood shops at Prince George Secondary School
• $480,000 for radon mitigation and control programs at Edgewood, Harwin, Quinson and Spruceland and College Heights and D.P. Todd secondary schools
• $402,000 for roof replacement at Westwood Elementary
• $325,000 for the replacement of the roof at McBride Secondary School
• $205,000 for the development of an Asbestos Management Plan
• $200,00 to replace two boilers at Heritage Elementary

Two items were ticked off last year’s list when the district received long-awaited funding ($43.3 million) for the replacement of Kelly Road Secondary and around $2.5 million for renovations at Nusdeh Yoh Elementary School.

Considering last year’s success, does school board chair Tim Bennett have high hopes the district will have success in getting expansion dollars for D.P. Todd?

“Well, we’re always hopeful that our capital plan needs will be funded by government,” he says. “With the approval of Kelly Road as well as Nusdeh Yoh, I would suspect that while we have a very good case, there are 59 other school districts with very good cases. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when capital decisions are made by the new government.”

All school districts must submit their five-year plans to the Ministry of Education by June 30, 2017.