Pearl Lorentzen
Lakeside Leader

At the March 22 Living Waters Catholic Schools board meeting, two Slave Lake trustees were sworn in.

Elizabeth Waselenak and Steve Muise were acclaimed during a by-election earlier this year. The trustees from other areas were elected (or acclaimed) in the fall.

Living Waters has two schools in Slave Lake. St. Mary of the Lake Catholic School and St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy.

The board approved modernizing St. Mary’s as one of three priority projects to submit to Alberta Education for the 2023-2026 provincial Capital Plan.

The other two were also modernization projects – one at an Edson school and the other in Whitecourt.

Living Waters released a document after the meeting called Board Messages – March 2022. It says the three were chosen “based on enrollment pressures and utilization rates, along with health and safety of the building, functionality, and programming needs.”

Utilization rates are related to facility capacity and are the number of students per gross square foot.

In the province’s 2022 Capital Plan, some funds were allocated to work done previously on a water main break at St. Francis in Slave Lake.

The next few Living Waters board meetings will be in schools. The one in Slave Lake is on May 24 at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School. It starts at 9:30 a.m.

“The board of Living Waters values the importance of engaging stakeholders in every community” is the reason given for the local meetings in the Board Messages.

It also adds “Along with their scheduled meetings, the board of trustees will take the opportunity to tour all schools in each community and are looking forward to their first opportunity to do this in two years, since restrictions have been lifted.”