When Christina Gill was in Grade 6 at Glenbrook Middle School, the province gave the New Westminster school district the go-ahead to build a new high school.
By the time she entered her last year at the middle school, the district had torn down a chunk of the old NWSS, including 12 classrooms, to prepare for the impending construction.
Having heard horror stories about the then-55-year-old building from her aunts and mother, Gill was relieved she’d be in one of the first classes to graduate from the new, state-of-the-art high school.
Instead, she graduated four years later, from an NWSS even more dilapidated than the one her aunts and mother attended.
“It was mortifying knowing I was going into that school, and when I got there, it was even worse,” Gill said.
The project had stalled by the time she was in Grade 9, when she wrote a letter to the Record, imploring city leaders, school trustees and New West citizens to “stop haggling over expenses and focus on the mandate of building a new high school only.”
“We continue to see articles and editorials about the school district business company, budgets and the need for an arts centre,” she wrote. “Enough already: we know what the issue is, let’s focus our energies on a solution. If the project plan for building a new school includes other secondary projects, we may never see a new high school in the next few years.”
Nearly 10 years later – as Gill gets ready to graduate from SFU this fall – construction has yet to begin on a new school, and she is deeply skeptical of the school board’s recent announcement that construction could realistically start by next summer.
“Personally, I don’t believe it,” she said. “They’ve been saying it for so long, it’s so hard to believe what they’re saying now. I feel like it’s more going to be like, ‘Oh, we’re going to put a shovel in the ground; we’re going to take a picture,’ more for publicity.”
Gill’s not alone in her skepticism.
“We’ve heard it all before,” parent and former district parent advisory council chair Paul Johansen said. “It’s just déjà vous.”
Commenters on the Record’s Facebook page were also unanimous in their doubt of the district’s recently announcement timeline.
That’s “fair enough,” according to school board chair Jonina Campbell.
“I understand where everybody’s coming from,” she told the Record. “All we can do is work hard to deliver.”
The board’s latest reason for hope is a June 3 letter from the education ministry, stating the district’s completed project development report had been received and the ministry hoped to be in a position to request funding from the provincial treasury within six to eight weeks.
“For the first time, we’re seeing things in writing,” Campbell said.
The district now expects a funding announcement by November, according to superintendent John Gaiptman.
The next step would be hiring a project manager and crafting a request for qualifications to find a pool of design-builders qualified to undertake the giant project, which will cost somewhere between $110 million and $130 million, according to the district, and has been described by the ministry as “the most complicated and costly replacement project undertaken in the K-12 system to date.”
The district will whittle that pool down to three potential proponents who will submit detailed plans in response to the district’s request for proposals.
From thence will emerge the actual proponent.
Gaiptman said he expects the process will be done in time to start construction in summer 2016, but he’s not surprised by people’s skepticism.
“It’s OK that people might not be confident that we’re going ahead, that our timeline is accurate,” he said, “and we’re working really hard to gain back their trust that when we say things will be built by a certain time, that they’ll be built by a certain time.”
He admits École Fraser River Middle School, now scheduled to open in 2016 – one year behind schedule – hasn’t helped, but he said at least it’s getting built.
“If instead of summer, it now stretches over into fall and there are reasons behind it, I think people are OK,” Gaiptman said of the start of the high school construction. “I think the trust is whether or not we’re actually going to get this thing built."
High school timeline:
1861-1919 Current NWSS site of various graveyards.
1949 Coffin unearthed during leveling for new junior high school construction. Vincent Massey Junior High School opens.
1954 Lester Pearson Senior High School opens.
1955 School board office building completed.
1965 Senior and junior high schools joined by walkway after two years of debate over amalgamation.
Early-1990s School board adopts middle school model.
2002 Cornerstone Planning Group, commissioned by the school board, recommends building new west-side middle school on same site at NWSS.
May 2003 Ministry of Education gives SD40 the go ahead to build new middle school and renovate or replace NWSS, stipulates no money forthcoming for purchase of middle school land. District’s projected completion: September 2006.
April 2004 District announces plans for $34 -million project for new middle and high schools on NWSS site, along with a housing development, and the sale of school district lands to help pay for the project.
Summer 2004 District tears down school board offices, library’s resource and media area, smoke stack, old Massey office, 12 classrooms in Massey wing and band rooms, and lays down 248 parking stalls to prepare for impending construction.
September 2004 Issue of cemetery raised by residents opposed to district selling off part of NWSS land for housing. District commissions study by local historian Archie Miller.
2004-2006 Housing development shelved. School district and city pursue an ambitious plan, dubbed the New Westminster Centre for Community Achievement, which includes a new high school, a combined community arts and cultural facility, Massey Theatre improvements, two lit synthetic turf fields, a sports annex and a street skate park.
November 2005 Tenders to build the combined project come in nearly $20 million over anticipated cost.
2006 Original project dies after years of debate between district, city, public and province .
July 2007 Education ministry announces new plans for middle and high school will proceed under “tight new controls.”
June 2008 Province allows for planning for middle school at another site because the cemetery was bigger than expected, and it was not properly decommissioned.
October 2008 - February 2009 Grimston Park residents and Lord Kelvin Elementary parents rally against placement of middle school at Grimston Park and Kelvin respectively. Other West End parents oppose proposal to place elementary school on high school site.
April 2009 District announces plan to build a new K-5 school at the old St. Mary’s Hospital site, a new 6-8 school at John Robson Elementary/Simcoe Park site and a new 9-12 high school on NWSS site. (This plan sticks.)
September 2014 New elementary school, École Qayqayt Elementary School, opens.
June 3, 2015 Ministry of Education informs district it has received its completed project development report and hopes to be in a position to request funding from the provincial treasury by the summer. District says high school construction should start by summer 2016.
September 2016 Anticipated opening of new middle school, École Fraser River Middle School, one year behind schedule.
