Chipped paint, rotting wood and rats – sounds more like a neglected prison than a place parents want to send their children.
For more than a decade, New Westminster families have waited to hear that the aging, worn-out New Westminster Secondary School will be replaced for the roughly 2,000 students at the city’s only public high school.
The project has been derailed over the years for reasons ranging from political gridlock, poor soil conditions and an old cemetery on the site, which altered the usable portion of the land. Could 2014 be the year the district and the province finally reach a long-overdue project agreement to get the school built?
Trustee Casey Cook thinks so.
“We’re expecting we will have a project agreement in place in April,” Cook told The Record. “Those are our expectations.”
The job of building two new schools in the city is on track, and the $23.2-million replacement elementary school for John Robson – Qayqayt (pronounced Kee-Kite) Elementary – is slated to open on schedule this fall. As well, the province and the district announced the builder for the new middle school (which will be built on the former Robson site) last fall. The middle school is scheduled to be built by 2015.
The replacement high school – a project that has been in the works for approximately 14 years – is the final piece in the puzzle.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s taken the time that it has, but I think we are moving towards resolution,” Cook said.
In the meantime, the 60-plus-year-old school looks a little more haggard each year.
Despite the aging building, high school parent Stephen Bruyneel said the education going on inside is solid.
“It’s really interesting. Until you have your kids go there, I think the perception is that it’s this thing that’s falling down and all of this kind of stuff. Once they get there, my experience talking to my kids’ friends and stuff, is kids love the school. They love the teachers. They love the camaraderie,” he said.
Still, he acknowledged that the school needs to be rebuilt. “Don’t get me wrong, it needs to be replaced,” said the father-of-two. “But, in terms of the kids’ experience, the student experience, I think it’s great.”
Cook agreed, saying, “There’s credit to our staff and our students, great things are happening (at the school).”
But, he noted, there is “very little we can offer as rationale for why it’s taken this long.”
Board of education chair Jonina Campbell agreed with Cook’s spring prediction.
“We are on target. We are working with the Ministry (of Education) to come together for a project agreement,” she said.
Once the province and the district sign the agreement, the building process will begin. The new high school will be for students from grades 9 to 12 and is expected to accommodate more than 2,000 students.
The plan includes a new Massey Theatre, which the City of New Westminster is expected to contribute $10.1 million to the cost of building.
A Ministry of Education press release from last April states that the “elementary school is the first in a plan to develop three new schools for New Westminster, including a middle school and a secondary school.”
Consultant Jim Alkins, project manager for the three new schools, could not be reached for comment at press time to say what the new high school is expected to cost.
