Seven Yukon schools are being considered for renovation or replacement, according to Education Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee.

These are Ecole Whitehorse Elementary, Selkirk Elementary School, Takhini Elementary School, Wood Street Centre, Christ the King Elementary School, Kluane Lake School and St. Elias Community School.

“We are currently undertaking a comprehensive planning process to address future school construction and/or renovations to existing school buildings to make sure that every student has a safe and appropriate place for learning,” McPhee told the legislature Nov. 9.

She listed the schools under consideration in a legislative return Nov. 14.

“The government is working on a long-term plan to spread the cost of school upgrades and replacements over a reasonable period of time,” it reads.

According to the return, some of these schools are being considered for inclusion in the Department of Education’s Five Year Capital Plan, which is expected to be approved in the spring of 2018.

Maxine White, a Department of Education spokesperson, said the government is aiming to replace or upgrade one school approximately every three years.

Thus, one or two of the listed schools might be included in the Five Year Capital plan, leaving the others to have repairs or replacement planned down the road.

The age of the school buildings determined what schools were included on the “revitalization” – renovation or replacement – list, McPhee told reporters Monday.

That’s why the school in Ross River, plagued by ongoing problems with permafrost, is not included. The school opened in 2001.

“As a result, it doesn’t live on a revitalization list of schools that are 40, 50 years old,” McPhee said.

Rather, it’s been identified as an urgent need that demands more immediate attention, White confirmed.

Highways and Public Works Minister Richard Mostyn told the legislative assembly Tuesday that while “the engineers dispatched to Ross River have said that this school is a safe building — a safe structure for the staff and students,” the government is preparing to take action to deal with the challenges presented by the permafrost it’s built on.

The government will monitor the school’s stability over the winter, Mostyn said, then look at levelling and re-freezing the ground.

On Tuesday, Yukon Party housing critic Wade Istchenko brought up another school absent from the list – The Nelnah Bessie John School in Beaver Creek.

Why, he asked, is it not being considered for renovation or replacement when it’s the same age as the Kluane Lake School in Destruction Bay?

It was also identified in a government-commissioned seismic screening in 2010 as one of eight Yukon schools at medium to high seismic risk. The other seven schools are on current revitalization list.

The Education minister did not provide an answer, but White confirmed that Beaver Creek is another school identified by the government as an “urgent need.”

Officials have been working with the Beaver Creek community and the White River First Nation, she said, to plan for the school’s revitalization.

McPhee has also told the legislature that the government is looking at expanding the criteria considered in planning school revitalization.

Beyond just age, White said the government is now taking into account schools’ overall conditions, seismic issues, programming requirements, community needs, and enrolment projections to determine how and where school repairs and replacements fit into capital planning.

McPhee has not revealed which schools are being prioritized for revitalization.

“The work is actually ongoing as we speak,” she told local media Monday.

She did confirm that until a comprehensive plan for the schools has been determined, she was not looking to vacate or close any Yukon schools.