The Superintendent of the Nicola-Similkameen School District says there are three schools in Merritt that have been damaged by floods.

Stephen McNiven says those are Diamond Vale Elementary, Merritt Central Elementary as well as Merritt Secondary School.

“All those have been rapid assessed from a structural point of view but we need to do more detailed assessment on the condition of each of those buildings,” he told NL News. “The other component is that our school board office is damaged, so we have four facilities that are going to need some repairs.”

McNiven says as far as he knows, the other schools in Merritt appear to be okay.

“They are good to go as far as we know at this point. The complication will be when can we get people into the building,” he said. “For example, at Collettville, it is in what is being described as Phase 3 so it could be available to us much later down the road as opposed to Merritt Bench, which is in Phase 1.”

“We’ll have to work through the re-entry plan to see how we can get people back into some of the schools that aren’t damaged.”

As it stands, McNiven says about 1,100 of the 2,400 students in School District 58 are not able to return to in person classes. It is why the district is working on bringing in remote learning for all students in both Merritt and Princeton, though its not clear when that could begin.

“It can happen more quickly in Princeton because we have the technology available to staff and students but in Merritt, because of the evacuation, we have some staff and certainly students that don’t have that technology in their hands,” McNiven said.

“So on the Merritt end that is going to take us a little longer.”