The Superintendent for School District 73 says Parkcrest Elementary remains the top capital priority for the school district.
Terry Sullivan says its because students were disrupted when the school burned down in September 2019.
“We need that school. We need it to be built. There is kind of a domino effect as a result of that school not being there. And so that really has to be a priority and we certainly want to hear that that is going to be done as quickly as we can get it done,” he told NL News.
“You know the school has gone and we’ve had to disperse programs to a variety of different places to be able to accommodate everyone while the school is built.”
SD73 Board Chair Rhonda Kershaw told NL News in September that plans to rebuild the school were still at the drawing board. The Ministry of Education told NL News at the time it was finalizing the project definition report for the new school building, which would include specific details.
Sullivan says he believes that the project was the top priority for the BC Treasury Board when the provincial election was called last month.
“So I guess we will have to wait until after the election is complete and once that happens, we are hoping it will move forward rapidly,” he said.
During the election campaign, both MLAs elect in the Kamloops riding – Todd Stone and Peter Milobar – promised $85 million in capital funding for School District 73, along with fast tracking the Parkcrest rebuild through an insurance claim process.
“We should be standing in front of an active construction zone. There should be activity taking place behind us,” Stone said on Oct. 21. “Certainly, if a government was focused on ensuring that our kids here in the North Shore are in the most appropriate learning space possible the government would have lived up to its word and they would have fast tracked this project.”
Sullivan meanwhile believes the earliest we could see shovels in the ground is the fall of 2021, with students then expected to go back into a new Parkcrest Elementary in the fall of 2023.
Back in December, SD73’s Director of Facilities Art McDonald said rebuilding Parkcrest Elementary School would cost up to $38 million.
