Just a day after the Minster of Education said the New Westminster school district must make a business case to get approval for a replacement high school, the province has given approval to the district’s request for a school that could house up to 1,900 students.
Enrolment figures were one of two sticking points between the province and the school district in the bid to build a replacement for New Westminster Secondary School.
“We were told today that the 1,900 (students) was a firm number,” a pleased superintendent John Gaiptman told The Record this afternoon.
But don’t pop the champagne corks just yet.
The project still has one final hurdle to get over, according to project manager Jim Alkins. The soil conditions on the site are fraught with issues, including the fact that the school grounds housed an old cemetery and the site’s poor soil conditions.
“We need to get confirmation on the budget related to soft soils and environmental concerns on the site,” Alkins said.
A portion of the site – essentially the Pearson wing of the school, located near the corner of Eighth Street and 10th Avenue – will be turned into parkland because it is a confirmed cemetery.
The Massey wing of the school and the skateboard park are the areas that could house a new school, according to Alkins.
While the district still has to work out the site issues and come to an agreement with the province on how to deal with those issues, finding an agreement on enrolment was an important step, Alkins said.
“Now that we have the enrolment accepted we’ll work our way through the rest because it becomes clear now,” he said. “It’s important to get that decision made.”
It also helps them determine how much additional space can be used for Neighbourhoods of Learning, which enables a 15 per cent larger building capacity, which can be used by community agencies.
The news comes on the heels of a Record article, in which Education Minister Peter Fassbender said the district’s bid to build a new secondary school must make financial sense in order to get funding to replace its aging high school.
"We are looking at the business case, the enrolments, the projected enrolments," Fassbender said last week. "I cannot go to the treasury board looking for additional funding for any district without a well-articulated business case that can be rationalized so we can move ahead on any projects." New Westminster families have waited well over a decade to open the doors to a new school. The district is in the process of building two new schools – an elementary and middle school, so many were expecting a good-news announcement on the high school to come this spring. The aging high school is something of a public eyesore with its chipped paint, rotting wood and occasional rat sightings.
