Chippewas School

New School Feasibility Study

The Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation is located on the west shores of Georgian Bay, approximately 30 km north of Wiarton, Ontario. It is characterized by the escarpment cliffs which are visible from throughout the community.

Neegan Burnside Ltd. was retained to lead a feasibility process for a new school. The existing school was built in the mid 1960’s and was identified as inefficient in size, layout and energy usage by the students and staff of the facility. Unfortunately, the owner was unable to procure the necessary justification to show the need for replacement.

Neegan Burnside worked within the AANDC Level of Servicing Standards (L.O.S.S.) and School Space Accommodation Standards (S.S.A.S.) to show that the current school was undersized. In addition, Neegan Burnside undertook a building condition assessment of the existing facility which provided evidence of the energy inefficiencies within the 50 year old building and allowed for a comparative cost exercise which showed that the current site and building did not represent a viable option for a new school.

Neegan Burnside then went on to work with the community and AANDC to develop an enrolment projection that adequately reflected the future growth of the community, allowing for the move to full day kindergarten in line with provincial guidelines and accounted for additional band members that were planning to relocate to the community. The end result was a document that showed without a doubt that the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded first Nation needed a new school.

In March of 2009, it was announced that the school would be funded and has since been constructed and occupied by the staff and students.

Services Provided

  • Feasibility Study
  • CEAA Screening Report Preparation
  • Building Assessment
  • Building Systems Assessment
  • Cost Estimate Development and Comparison
  • Benefits/Impact Analysis

Chippewas_1 Chippewas School

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