With three weeks left before students head back to school, the New Westminster school district has its fingers crossed its newest school will be ready to go.
Crews at Fraser River Middle School are putting the final touches on the new school, including paving and landscaping the site so it’s ready come September.
“The goal is to have it done. We have three weeks, and the plan is to have it all done. These guys work miracles, but right now I’m being told by my facilities director that we’re going to be very close to finished,” district superintendent Pat Duncan told the Record.
The new middle school was originally scheduled to open last September, but in January 2015, the district chose to postpone the opening date by one year to ensure the school would be completely ready for students when it opened.
Duncan said the district’s main goal is to avoid a repeat of what happened when École Qayqayt Elementary School opened in September 2014. Construction at the new downtown elementary school was incomplete when school started. It was missing playgrounds, a gym and work was still being done on the building’s exterior. When the district asked parents to reflect on the experience, they told the district it made for a stressful and difficult beginning.
The decision to delay the middle school’s opening, however, prompted the contractor to back off the project for a bit, knowing they had more time to get everything done, Duncan said. The district had hoped the school would be ready early so teachers could have transitioned to the new facility at the end of the 2015-16 school year, but that didn’t happen.
“It would have been nice, in a perfect world, if we were in the end of June so that teachers who are moving there could have had a chance to get to their classrooms, but those are issues that are beyond my control and in the hands of the contractors,” Duncan said.
Despite his disappointment, Duncan said the district was set to get access to the school this week with teachers expected to arrive sometime the week of Aug. 29, which should make for a seamless transition come September, he added.
“We fully expect that when families and children arrive on Tuesday that their school is going to be up and ready,” he said.
Looking for more information for the first day of school?
The New Westminster school district has posted all important documents on its website’s homepage. Under “current information” on the right hand side of the screen, parents will find the following documents:
- 2016-17 School Calendar
- September 2016 School Opening Procedures
- 2016-17 School Registration
- 2016-2017 School Registration Documents
- 2016-2017 School Fees
The school opening procedures sheet explains what parents and students can expect on the first day back, including how long they’ll need to be in class on Tuesday, Sept. 6. Parents who have already registered their kids should receive information about what time their children need to arrive.
For kindergarten to Grade 5 students, expect them to be in class for about 40 minutes – same as students at Glenbrook and Queensborough middle schools.
Fraser River Middle School students will at the school for about one hour on the first day, and high school students are required to report to New Westminster Secondary School at their grade’s designated assembly time, which is outlined on the school openings procedure document.
All this information will also be included in a notice in the Record next week. For more information, parents can contact the school directly starting Monday, Aug. 29.
