
It appears there is some good news regarding Merritt Secondary School, which was one of four SD58 facilities that was damaged by floods last week.
Superintendent Stephen McNiven says the inside of the school may not be as damaged as first feared, though he says there was some significant damage to the outside and the school grounds.
“We are doing some early assessments as soon as we can get that done with the orders in place,” he said in an update on Wednesday afternoon. “So we’ll know that fairly soon and be able to make some decisions whether that school is going to be up and running in days, weeks, or months.”
McNiven says SD58 is “concerned” as some senior students are now looking to other school districts just so they can graduate on time. He also noted that the district is still working on bringing in remote learning for all students in both Merritt and Princeton, though there is no timeline when that could happen.
“If we do not have the facility available in a timely fashion, we would likely look at some blended opportunities where we have online remote learning with some some face to face support as well, McNiven said.
“The challenge for us is that many staff and students left without technology so we’ve got some complications in front of us but our senior students are at the top of our mind around any learning loss that might be taking place.”
Other SD58 properties that were damaged by flooding include Diamond Vale Elementary, Merritt Central Elementary and the school district office, which is located directly across the street from Merritt Secondary.
In an interview with NL News on Tuesday, McNiven said 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.”