The Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board is taking measures to lower radon levels at St. Mary Catholic School in Massey.
“Less than half of our classrooms had elevated levels of radon,” said Steve Brown, H-SCDSB manager of plant services, at Wednesday’s regular monthly board meeting.
“There are not high levels but it’s above Health Canada’s threshold so we did monitoring and we found that we had to address this. You have two years to implement mitigation from the time that you do the monitoring,” Brown told the board.
Radon is an odourless natural gas that comes from the breakdown of uranium in soil and rock.
Radon dilutes if released into outdoor air but exposure to high levels of radon in indoor air — such as that in schools and other buildings — leads to an increased risk of lung cancer. The risk increases depending on the level of radon and how long a person is exposed to those levels.
There have been no reports of illness due to radon at the school, Brown told reporters after Wednesday’s meeting.
“It’s basically a gas that comes out of the ground and in the case of the Massey school it’s built on a crawlspace with a dirt floor so it’s vulnerable to that radon gas,” Brown told the board.
The H-SCDSB has awarded the contract for radon mitigation at St. Mary to Jobst Bros. Construction for a cost of $293,959.
Radon mitigation at the school will involve installation of a polyethylene membrane over the dirt floor in the crawlspace and the installation of 11 radon exhaust fans throughout the school.
The radon mitigation project was one of several new capital projects for 2023-24 that Brown listed for the board at Wednesday’s meeting.
There will be a conversion to LED lighting at Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima in Elliot Lake.
“The federal government intends to ban the sale and manufacture of all light bulbs containing mercury by the end of 2026 so we will be doing several lighting upgrades in the coming years starting with these two this coming summer,” Brown said.
There will also be various barrier-free upgrades done at Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Paul schools in Sault Ste. Marie including construction of barrier-free washrooms in each school and several interior and exterior ramps.
“I believe there are four schools left on our list (that still need to be made barrier-free). We’ve deferred a few projects in past years because of other priorities such as the ventilation upgrades that we completed so it’s put us a little bit behind our intended schedule but we’re pretty much back on track and we have a plan for those remaining four schools,” Brown said.
Those schools are Holy Name of Jesus in Hornepayne, St. Augustine French Immersion Catholic School in Wawa, St. Mary in Massey and St. Mary’s French Immersion in the Sault. Brown said his department is aiming to have those barrier-free upgrades done over the next two years.
The two biggest projects on the board’s list in terms of cost concern work to be done at two schools in the Sault: St. Kateri Outdoor Learning Centre for $930,000 and St. Basil Catholic Elementary School for $555,000.
St. Kateri will have expanded and upgraded washroom facilities including replacement of an existing septic system, ventilation system upgrades, upgraded electrical service, conversion to LED lighting and an additional classroom.
St. Basil Catholic Elementary School will have interior renovations done that will see the addition of three new classrooms.
That work includes converting the school’s former music room to two additional classrooms and expanding an existing library seminar room and converting it to a classroom.
The board has already split the school’s cafeteria into four classrooms and added three portables for classroom space.
The three new classrooms announced Wednesday will bring the total of new classrooms at St. Basil to 10, necessary to meet increased enrolment at that school.
St. Basil has over 700 students.
“We’re pretty much out of space after this project without putting an addition on,” Brown told reporters Wednesday.
Construction of the three latest classrooms at St. Basil will start in the summer.
H-SCDSB capital projects for 2023-24 include:
- St. Kateri Outdoor Learning Centre - expanded and upgraded washroom facilities including replacement of existing septic system, an additional classroom, upgrades to ventilation system, conversion to LED lighting and upgraded electrical service
- St. Basil SSM - Convert former music room to two additional classrooms, expansion of existing library seminar room and conversion to classroom, installation of two gymnasium dividing curtains
- Our Lady of Lourdes, Elliot Lake - conversion to LED lighting
- Our Lady of Fatima, Elliot Lake - conversion to LED lighting, replacement of fire alarm system
- Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Paul, Sault Ste. Marie - various barrier-free upgrades
- St. Mary, Massey - radon mitigation, including installation of a polyethylene membrane over dirt floor in crawlspace and installation of 11 radon exhaust fans throughout the school
The H-SCDSB has over $4.4 million available for capital projects for 2023-24, plus contingency funding of over $964,000.