As promised, the Yukon government issued a tender for a portable classroom this month, partly in hopes of addressing overcrowding concerns in some Whitehorse elementary schools.

The procurement opportunity, issued last Friday, is by invitation only. That means only those bidders who have been invited can apply to design and build the portable for Golden Horn Elementary School (GHES), located near the Carcross Cutoff.

Such tenders have at least three competitive groups on the list the government uses to reach out to possible proponents, Oshea Jephson, a Department of Highways and Public Works (HPW) spokesperson, confirmed Monday afternoon.

It comes after Education Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee was grilled in the legislature during the past fall sitting about the situation at the site.

That school, which houses students in Kindergarten to Grade 7, was listed at 98 per cent capacity as recently as Oct. 18, show figures provided by the cabinet office.

Other schools that are approaching full capacity include Holy Family in Porter Creek (96 per cent) and École Whitehorse Elementary (87 per cent).

Reports have shown that Golden Horn’s school council wrote to the minister last February. It said the school used “all available space, including using a boiler room closet” for one of its programs.

The letter makes reference to teaching happening at one-time storage sites and a supply room.

The bid comes after weeks of McPhee being questioned by opposition parties about how to best address the overcrowding concerns.

Come Oct. 18, the government committed to “seeking to add portables to some schools,” and later went on to confirm on Nov. 6 that a tender would be put out for one portable.

While it was unclear at that time where exactly the portable would go, bid documents shared with the Star Monday week show it’s strictly for Golden Horn.

The council had asked that a tender for portables go out by the end of this calendar year, a spokesperson confirmed early last month.

That tender is for one modular classroom, and the original plan was for it to be delivered to the Yukon come the end of this fiscal year (so March to April of 2019).

Now that the department has decided to opt for an invite-only process with local companies, the substantial completion date is instead set for Aug. 2, 2019.

That will be in time for the beginning of the school year, Jephson confirmed Tuesday. The year will start in mid to late August (this year’s first day of classes for GHES was Aug. 21).

The portable is expected to be ready for occupancy by that early August date.

The government had first put out a tender looking for a mobile classroom earlier this year in April for Golden Horn, but to no avail as there were no takers.

McPhee eventually mentioned in the legislature there were no portables available in the Western region of the country.

With now a targeted invitational tender, the department hopes to be more successful this time around.

“We recognize there is a trend of growing student enrolment in Whitehorse, including in attendance for GHES,” said Kyle Nightingale, a spokesperson for the Department of Education.

With the tender, “our full intention is placing a portable at Golden Horn Elementary School for the 2019-2020 school year,” he added.

Much like McPhee during the latter half of the sitting, Nightingale referenced long, medium and short-term plans to address this. The minister has said portables are considered a mid-term solution.

As for the other schools and their capacity, Nightingale could not speak specifically to whether other things like portables may be in the works.

“There’s always an ongoing effort to work with school communities .... to address spacing needs.”

Meanwhile, the GHES February letter notes that the addition of a portable for the next school year would allow accommodation for estimated enrolment.

Two portables would help most classes have one to two available spaces for students, but still call for the boiler room closet and storage rooms being used.

The council estimated that by 2020, the school would need three portables to “function effectively.”

As of Oct. 18, the school had 240 students enrolled with a maximum capacity of 246, with a total of 11 classrooms to serve them.

As for the tender itself: while the cost remains unknown until the bid is rewarded, tender documents show the bid is subject to be one of the government’s 10 procurement exemptions up to $1 million each.

Those are part of a trade agreement that allows YG to elevate regional economic development by provided local opportunities – rather than go to an Outside company.

Jephson added Tuesday that these projects are selected based on the “community benefit and potential growth in a particular industry.”

So far, an HPW webpage shows YG has used more than half of its exceptions for this fiscal year (ending March 31 of next year), with the portable bid being its seventh.

The closing date for the invitational bid is Dec. 18.

Once it’s awarded, more details are expected to be posted on the HPW webpage.