Updated: Thursday, Jun 9, 9:30 a.m.
Min of Ed Announcement getting underway at @argyleschool
— Jane Seyd (@JaneSeyd) June 9, 2016
Funding not enough for "extras" like theatre space & addtl students @NVSD44 wants as preferred option
— Jane Seyd (@JaneSeyd) June 9, 2016
New @argyleschool will have capacity of 1200 students. #bced #northvan
— Jane Seyd (@JaneSeyd) June 9, 2016
New @argyleschool scheduled to open in 2019. #northvan #bced
— Jane Seyd (@JaneSeyd) June 9, 2016
Parents and school district trustees in North Vancouver are waiting with bated breath to find out if a visit by Education Minister Mike Bernier to Argyle secondary Thursday morning will also come with provincial approval for a long-awaited school replacement.
Bernier will be at the school shortly after 9 a.m. for an announcement, widely expected to be word about a rebuild of the seismically risky secondary school.
“Definitely we’re hoping there is going to be an announcement,” said Heather Skuse, chairwoman of the Argyle secondary parent advisory council. “It’s been a long time coming and I am really hopeful it’s going to happen.”
Replacement of the earthquake-risk prone school has been a top priority of the North Vancouver School District for the past decade. Approval of funding for a seismic upgrade was announced in 2012, before the last provincial election.
Since then, however, the school district has been pushing the province to approve a complete rebuild of the school – with extra funds for that to be provided by the North Vancouver School District using money from the sale of former school sites.
The school district’s preferred option for the school rebuild also includes community amenities like a fitness facility and change rooms that could be accessed from the field, plus room for a 250-seat performing arts area. It also includes space for 100 more students than the school’s current capacity of 1,200 students.
But the school district has come up $2 million short of being able to pay for all of that, after one planned development deal was nixed by the District of North Vancouver council.
If the province doesn’t come up with the extra cash, that plan will likely have to be scaled down.
The cost of a new school has previously been estimated at between $45 million and $51 million – depending on what’s included.
Bernier visited Argyle last fall as part of a familiarization tour of provincial schools, where during his visit, large recycling tubs were placed to catch drips from the leaking roof.
At the time, superintendent John Lewis reminded Bernier that the school was built “fast and cheap” in 1961 out of unreinforced concrete blocks and represents a significant earthquake risk.
In 2015, both Argyle and Handsworth schools were among 38 schools identified as being at high risk for serious damage in an earthquake that had been approved for seismic funding, but did not have signed project agreements in place with the province.
If approval for an Argyle rebuild is announced Thursday by Bernier, it’s likely a new school would open in 2019 or 2020.
On Tuesday, Bernier announced the province will fund a new $106-million high school replacement in New Westminster. That rebuild will also replace a seismically-risky structure.
