The school district is deferring the opening of the new middle school being built on the former John Robson site until September 2016 to ensure an “optimal learning” environment for students.
The news comes a week after The Record first reported that the district was considering the move because of construction progress on École Fraser River Middle School, which is being built for approximately 500 students from Qayqayt, Lord Tweedsmuir, Connaught Heights and Lord Kelvin elementary schools.
“The superintendent reported to the board that he had serious concerns regarding the progress of the building to date,” school board chair Jonina Campbell said in the press release. “While we have been assured that we would have an occupancy permit, the board believes that it is imperative that we ensure our students are in an environment that is conducive to learning.”
The district may be able to get an occupancy permit for the date the school was originally slated to open – September 2015 – but that doesn’t “ensure the kind of education setting that we believe is best for students,” she said.
The district recently started checking in with Qayqayt Elementary to get input on the possibility of delaying the opening of the new downtown middle school for another year.
Superintendent John Gaiptman asked Qayqayt parent advisory council chair Serena Trachta how she would feel if École Fraser River Middle School didn’t open in the fall if construction wasn’t complete.
When Trachta’s son showed up to Qayqayt when it opened last fall, the school was open but unfinished. The school was missing playgrounds, was without a gym and work still being done on the building’s exterior.
“They asked us as parents, would parents be disappointed if the school opening was delayed, if the alternative was to have an incomplete building like (what) happened at Qayqayt, and we said ‘Oh, my gosh, thanks for asking first of all. Thanks so much for including us in the dialogue and second, we would much rather have the building finished,’” Trachta told The Record last week.
Campbell also noted the experience of Qayqayt parents.
“In conversations with parents of Qayqayt Elementary, they emphasize that having their children attend a school that wasn’t completely finished was both stressful and difficult. This change enables our students and their families to move forward with certainty and confident in the transition to Fraser River Middle school,” Campbell stated.
The delay won’t impact the construction schedule for the New Westminster Secondary School, or cost the district money, Gaiptman said.
“It is essential that when students walk into their new school it is fully functional,” vice-chair Casey Cook said in the release. “The board believes that a new school must be fully operational. Senior management has informed the board that there would not be any additional costs to the district by deferring school, nor would it affect the New West Secondary School project.”
The school board’s headquarters, which are slated to move to the new middle school in September, remain at Columbia Square. Acting secretary-treasurer Kevin Lorenz said the delay won’t cost the district financially, even though it will have to pay another year’s rent on the Columbia Square building because it will save on the cost of opening the new school.
