After what seemed like an eternity, New Westminster finally got the good news it had been waiting for – funding was approved for a replacement high school.
The announcement came one year after the school district submitted its project definition report to the Ministry of Education outlining the need for a new high school in New Westminster. The $106-million project will be the largest undertaking of its kind for the ministry, and once complete, the new New Westminster Secondary School will be home to 1,900 Grade 9 to 12 students.
But the project is not without its obstacles.
The current school sits on the remains of the Douglas Road Cemetery, which was in use from the 1860s to 1919, and both the Ministry of Education and the school district have promised no part of the new school will be built over any known burial lands. That means the district must confirm what part of the site is available for construction, a task the district set out to complete this summer.
Crews descended on the school in July to scan the property as part of the preparations. The workers were then expected to go through the information it collected to determine where the graves were and where the district could build.
In the meantime, the school district held its first round of community consultations this fall. While the consultation didn’t give anyone an idea of what the school will look like, it did show an anticipated location for the new building. Because of limited space on the site, the new school will be in an area between Mercer Stadium and the Royal City Christian Centre at Eighth Avenue and Sixth Street (almost on the existing skate park site). The remainder of the available land will be used for sports fields and a 5.4-acre memorial park space in honour of the people buried at the old cemetery.
Construction for the new school should start September 2017 with doors open in December 2019, according to school district superintendent Pat Duncan.
But keep this in mind: this is not the first time the New Westminster Secondary School replacement project received funding. In 2004, the Ministry of Education approved plans for a middle school and high school on the existing site, but neither would ever see the light of day. After lengthy debate between the school district, the city and the province, the project died.
With this false start looming over New Westminster, you can bet we’ll be keeping a close eye on this project as it moves forward.
