By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — With the support of Sun West School Division, Davidson School administrators are making another push for provincial support to join the two wings of the school.

The project, with an estimated cost of more than $1 million, would physically link the elementary and high school buildings, giving the school one common entrance, as well as connecting infrastructure such as phones, bells and fire alarms.

An application for major capital funding was approved by the board of Sun West School Division at its June 23 meeting and sent on to the province, which will consider the project for funding in next year’s budget.

Principal Jason Low said late last month that the board has identified the “Davidson School Link” as a priority project, selecting it as one of the three priority items they are allowed to submit to the province for approval this year.

The budget will be released in March 2016, said Low, and “at that point, we’ll get to see whether they are going to let us go ahead with the project or not.”

The link was first proposed in 2008, when the elementary and high schools were amalgamated into one following the restructuring of the province’s school divisions.

As the two schools ceased to exist independently, becoming the singular Davidson School, it was proposed that the two buildings be joined into one.

“That was part of the official plan,” said Low, noting that the proposal was rejected by the ministry. “We let it go for a little bit.”

However, in recent years the school has revived its efforts to have the link constructed, owing to a number of factors and concerns.

Because the school’s main entrance leads into the high school, Low said, the elementary school remains “its own island.”

“There’s no secretary over there, there’s no office,” he said. “There’s no way to regulate what’s happening over there.”

As a consequence, the doors to the elementary school are all locked from the outside throughout the day, meaning anyone wanting to get inside will either have to be let in or use a key to enter.

This helps to keep the elementary wing secure, but Low said the remedy may result in problems of its own — for instance, if a younger student couldn’t get inside quickly enough on a cold winter day.

“It just poses a big safety concern,” said the principal.

There are other factors as well. Even though the schools officially operate as one, remaining as separate buildings has hampered efforts to unite them in the minds of the staff and students.

“We’ve worked really hard at combining two staffs essentially into one,” said Low. “We’re still on that journey.”

Until the schools are linked physically, he said, “I don’t think we’ll ever be fully unified.”

For the complete story, please see the July 6 edition of The Davidson Leader.