Bishop Feild parents and students take repair frustrations to Confederation Building

A year and a half after the school was closed, parents frustrated over how long it's taking to fix Bishop Feild school have done some extracurricular writing lessons with their kids.

They've handwritten letters outlining their concerns, and 20 Bishop Feild students brought those letters to Confederation Building Monday morning.

"It's a symbolic thing," said Jennifer Binetti, whose daughter Gianna attended the school. "We want to be able to teach them that you have a voice."

Students from kindergarten to Grade Six at Bishop Feild put those letters into the hands of the Steve Crocker, the transportation and works minister.

"I started going to the original Bishop Feild and I would like to finish there," sixth grader Gianna Binetti wrote in her letter.

"Because you are taking a bit longer to fix it comes off like you don't really care about the students and teachers."

Students spoke with ministers

The goal for the students was to leave the letters at the security desk at the Confederation Building, but Education Minister Al Hawkins and Crocker came to speak with the students.

Both explained some of the work that the old school needs, which includes removing a coal room still housed in the aging structure.

"It was really great to see these young people come out today to advocate on behalf of their cause," Crocker said.

"We've assured them that we will have them back in their school as quickly as possible."

Bishop Feild was closed in October 2017 after a concrete section of the gymnasium roof collapsed, and since then students have been attending classes at the former School for the Deaf on Topsail Road.

That means spending about 90 minutes on a bus each day, and a more complicated after-school schedule.

Meanwhile, a report on the structural integrity of the building wasn't finished until May 2018. A tender on the ceiling demolition didn't happen until Sept. 2018, and that work is not finished.

"This is all just taking far too long," said Rhona Buckhan, another Bishop Feild parent.

'It's been quite a long process'

The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District anticipates students and staff will be back in the school in January 2020, but that can't happen before critical repair work identified in the engineering report is finished.

Buckhan and other parents are worried about what they say is an increasingly looming deadline — with an estimated 36 weeks of work required, they say a tender needs to be awarded by April 1.

"We're here because there have been no repairs even started," Buckhan said.

In a letter to parents earlier this month, the district said the transportation and works department was still finalizing the tender package. Once it's ready, interested parties will have three weeks to bid on it, and the department hopes to have it awarded at the beginning of April.

The school is the oldest established in St. John's, and people have said they're worried the 90-year-old building would require too much work to make it worth the cost of repairs.

But the provincial government has said it doesn't have any plans to close the school, and last year set aside $15 million for repairs and maintenance.

Minster Crocker told the parents and students who showed up at Confederation Building on Monday morning that a tender for the work needed to repair the school will go out this week.

"It's been quite a long process. In all fairness to the parents and students this process has taken quite a long time," said Crocker.

Parents were happy to hear the update from government but remain skeptical on the January 2020 timeline.

"We're starting to lose, obviously, confidence in this board, this government," said parent Brenda Halley. "Nothing has come to fruition, so now it just feels like, OK all these empty promises have been thrown out — very lightly I think — and y'know we're asking when are we going to have our community back downtown. We don't belong on Topsail Road."

You can watch some of the students read their letters in the video below.

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