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When the opening day of school arrives in 2015, Grade 7 students will be attending North Battleford Comprehensive High School.

Before that can happen, there will need to be renovations made and a new gymnasium created.

The Living Sky School Division board of education recently approved going to tender on the renovations.

The rough estimate of cost is $3.5 million to $4.3 million, says Chief Financial Officer Lonny Darroch.

The provincial education ministry has not approved any capital funding from their direction, so funds for the project will come from reserves the board of education has on the books.

The hope is that construction will be started this summer in order to finish up by school startup in September of 2015, says Darroch.

The project involves renovating program and instructional space in addition to raising the roof on a section of the building to create a second gymnasium space within the existing building.

The renovations are a result of a grade reconfiguration that saw Battlefords public school students going into Grade 8 in September of 2013 moving from elementary schools to NBCHS. At the beginning of the 2015-16 year, Grade 7 will also attend NBCHS.

The Living Sky School Division Board of Education passed a motion to that effect in 2013 in a move to alleviate the overcrowding of elementary schools in the Battlefords.

Board members did not want to move Grade 7 students to the Comp without constructing a second gymnasium.

Brian Bossaer, facilities manager, has told the board that, although the existing gym is a large space, with six grade levels in the school, full programming would be difficult without a second gym. A second gym would ensure the lower grades wouldn't be bumped from programming by senior groups.

Renovations to the instruction areas are also being planned to have Grades 7, 8 and 9 together within the facility.

Most of the overcrowding to be alleviated is found in the elementary schools of Connaught and Battleford Central, partially caused by the 2001 and 2002 closures of Battleford Junior High School and Alexander Junior High School. The result was the moving of Grades 7 and 8 to the elementary schools while Grade 9 relocated to NBCHS.

In years since, as the elementary schools became more crowded, the ministry made it clear to Living Sky that it would not approve adding portable classrooms or constructing any additions to existing elementary schools in the Battlefords as long as there was unused space at NBCHS.

As a result, the focus has been on making that facility work to meet Living Sky School Devision's needs for the next decade or more.