Summer break will mean full-speed-ahead construction of the school soon to be known as Skwo:wech Elementary.
The $35-million replacement for Richard McBride Elementary is rapidly taking shape on the school’s Richmond Street site.
The school district’s facilities director, Dave Crowe, updated trustees at the school board’s June 8 operations committee meeting with the news that the project is continuing on time and on budget.
“Everything is going really, really well,” he said.
Once school lets out for the summer break at the end of the month, Crowe said, the project will pick up even more speed.
“We are accelerating quite a bit of that work over the summer months to help us along with our schedule,” he said.
The ground floor of the new school is starting to take shape now, with drywall set to begin in the coming days. Window installation is also coming before the end of June. The exterior work, including windows and building envelope, is set to be done by the end of August, while interior work is projected to be finished by the second week of December.
The new school is slated to be ready for occupancy by midway through the 2021/22 school year, with demolition of the old school by April 2022 and the final landscaping done by 2022.
Funding for the new school – to replace the existing, seismically unsound structure that dates back to 1929 – was first announced in 2018.
As of Sept. 1, the school’s name will officially be changed to Skwo:wech Elementary, following a vote by school board on May 25.
Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
Email Julie, jmaclellan@newwestrecord.ca.
