The territorial government has chosen a new design for the F.H. Collins Secondary School reconstruction.

The plans, provided free of charge by the Alberta government, was built in 2009 in Terwilliger at a cost of $21 million.

Highways and Public Works Minister Wade Istchenko told the Star Thursday that construction costs are expected to be higher for F.H., taking a different environment into consideration.

But it will come in under the $38.6-million budget YTG had set aside for the new school's construction, he assured.

At a technical briefing held Thursday afternoon, Mike Johnson, the deputy minister of Highways and Public Works, said the department hopes to put the project out for tender by the fall, following a geotechnical assessment during the spring and summer months.

They expect the school to be completed during the 2015/2016 academic year.

The geotechnical assessment will allow the department to determine the best location for the new school and the usability of civil work already completed for the original design.

Education Minister Scott Kent noted Thursday the study will also provide a clearer picture of the potential to incorporate geothermal energy into the latest design, as was planned under the previous concept.

Val Royle, the Department of Education's deputy minister, reiterated at the briefing that the school's gym won't be affected during the construction process.

The new building will likely be located on either the upper or lower playing field.

The new F.H. Collins will be built to accommodate 750 students, as was recommended by the now-disbanded parents advisory committee.

The current 50-year-old school has a capacity of 1,200 with a student body of between 600 and 700.

The government decided in March to abandon the original $3.5-million design, after the lowest bid came in almost $10 million over-budget.

The government has repeatedly refused to release construction estimates it commissioned prior to tendering the original design in order to set the budget, citing proprietary information.

The Star queried yesterday, to no avail, what type of proprietary information those estimates could include, considering the shift to a new design.

Following the tender process earlier this year, the government chose to move forward with a pre-designed, campus-style school that had been successfully constructed elsewhere.

YTG investigated several pre-designed options and government officials visited schools recently constructed in Alberta, settling on the Terwilliger model. 

Royle said the model fits the needs identified during the original consultation of the school community, allowing for:

• a central area that allows access to common, multi-purpose areas;

• flexible learning space for students and teachers;

• maximized access to the gym for community use outside of school hours;

• an elders' lounge and First Nations learning spaces; and

• an industrial teaching kitchen.

Adjustments will have to be made to the design to incorporate some of these needs, Royle explained, but the model provides for that flexibility.

An industrial kitchen will have to be added, as will two extra science labs, a cafeteria and an expanded library.

The school also provides the flexibility to add an additional wing should the French language school board decide to move L'Academie Parhelie, the potential French first-language high school, to that location.

In that event, a new gym may also be needed, along with further expanded library space, Royle said.

She clarified that the model is flexible enough that a wing could be built at the same time as the new F.H. or in the years following, depending on when a decision is reached.

The new school project has been the subject of spirited debate over the last couple of years.

The opposition parties have mocked Premier Darrell Pasloski for a photo-op of himself and ministerial colleagues turning the sod during the 2011 election campaign.

Earlier this year, a furore broke out after the government initially said the current gym would be demolished in March of this year – with no plan for alternative facilities pending the completion of the new school.