New Westminster schools are getting a million-dollar refresh this summer – including the installation of more portables at crowded schools.
School District 40 has laid out its plans for spending just shy of $1.2 million allocated in its annual facilities grant, which is earmarked for school upkeep.
The money must be spent by March 30, 2023, and much of the associated work happens over the summer break. (Schools are now out for summer until students return after Labour Day weekend.)
The biggest chunk of the money, $470,000, is earmarked for roof replacement at Queensborough Middle School — the first phase of a two-year project that will be completed next year. Another $242,000 is dedicated to new flooring at the middle school.
The district earmarked $110,000 of its grant for an air source heat pump at École Glenbrook Middle School. Though the project had been previously funded out of the province’s carbon-neutral capital program, that funding turned out to be insufficient after construction costs skyrocketed.
“Escalation, as you all know, in the construction sector has gone shockingly sideways and continues to rise,” secretary-treasurer Bettina Ketcham told trustees at their final operations committee meeting of the year in June. “The monies that we put in for a year ago could not keep up with those increases in costs.”
Also in the works are $192,000 worth of site upgrades at several schools, including stairs, fencing and paving to lay the groundwork for new portables at Queen Elizabeth Elementary, École Qayqayt Elementary, Lord Kelvin Elementary and Fraser River Middle School.
Ketcham noted those portables are necessary because of the district’s continued enrolment growth.
A district report notes SD40 had received permits for four portables to be installed this summer: one each at Qayqayt and Queen Elizabeth and two at Lord Kelvin.
(You can find a full outline of the grant spending in the agenda for the operations committee meeting June 7.)
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