A recent letter from the Ministry of Education has New Westminster school district staff reassured about the future of the long-awaited high school replacement.
The letter outlines project details that have been agreed upon between the Ministry of Education and the school district, including that the school will be replaced, not renovated.
“The Ministry of Education is committed to work with School District #40 to advance this project on a priority basis,” says the letter, signed by deputy minister Dave Byng.
The replacement school will be built on the existing New Westminster Secondary School site, taking into account the areas which have been designated as cemetery; the capacity of the school will be 1,900 students, serving grades 9 to 12, the letter states.
Another development, based on recent survey work, is that the existing school is now deemed to have a high-risk seismic ranking, “meaning the school becomes an immediate concern,” which helps the call to replace the aging building, the district’s director of operations Doug Templeton told The Record.
Templeton and school board chair Jonina Campbell met with local media Monday to discuss the letter from the Ministry, which they saw as a positive step toward getting the school replaced.
“To me this is a commitment from the ministry to work with us to get us to a position where we can be successful,” Campbell said.
Still, she acknowledged the letter doesn’t means the district has secured funding from the province to put the shovels in the ground, but it says something about the ministry's willingness to move forward.
“I don’t know how many people celebrate a pre-announcement,” Campbell said, laughing. “We are going to celebrate every step of the way.”
Campbell is optimistic that having the information in writing from the ministry, along with timelines and clear expectations, means the project is proceeding forward.
The high school replacement project is one of the costliest and most-complex projects in the province. New Westminster Secondary School was built over an old cemetery in the 1950s. Some of the hefty $110 million price tag to replace the aging school includes costs for potentially dealing with issues on the site, including those related to the cemetery.
The deputy minister’s letter also asks for various pieces of information for the project to move forward, including determining the actual area of the high school, including the Neighbourhood Learning Centre space, a procurement review, a summary of capital expenditures, an understanding of the risks reviews, a budget by a surveyor and a completion of the project definition report.
The ministry will assess each item submitted by the school district and respond within two weeks of receiving it, deputy minister Byng’s letter states.
Much of the requested work is already underway and near completion, Campbell said.
The district expects the project definition report will be submitted to the province’s treasury board by February 2015, after it has the Minister of Education’s approval. The district anticipates a response on funding for the project by March 2015.
