In an effort to streamline resources the Horizon School Division is constructing a new head office in Humboldt.

The $5.5 million dollar project will be constructed on the four acres of land the HSD owns near their current office and the Olymel building that they lease. 

Director of Education Kevin Garinger provides more details.

"On Friday, June 2nd we received word from the Ministry of Education that we could move forward with the plans again to consolidate an office here in Humboldt."

The first chatter of the new office was all the way back in 2009. In 2011 a single centralized office was agreed upon and in 2013 it was concluded Humboldt would be the site. In 2015 they were advised to stop exploring options for a new venue but recently talks picked back up.

With all the cutbacks of late with education due to the province's debt, many might question the project but Garinger says the move is going to be a cost saving measure.

"When we purchase we actually are able to utilize the dollars that we would have been using for lease we are actually able to use those to put back in the classroom. Our capital expenditure actually allows us to put more money into supporting our classrooms and the work we do in our schools."

The funding for the facility will be from internal reserves that couldn't be transferred to front line services anyways.

"We're looking right now at a completion date of somewhere late fall of 2018," Garinger explained. "We'll be going to Request for Proposals hopefully by the end of this week and then we will begin the process of looking at the proponents and going through that process of course."

Shovels should hit the ground in late August or early September of this year.

You can hear much more from Garinger below in his interview with Bolt FM's Clark Stork.