Pause for new Moncton school disappoints education council chair
Disappointed but not surprised.
That's how the chair of the Anglophone East district education council described his reaction when the provincial government hit pause on a new school in Moncton's west end.
"It was top on our list and we had done a lot of work," said Harry Doyle. "We seemed to have an agreement it was acceptable to put the schools together."
The former Liberal government announced last year it had set aside $1.5 million to plan the new school to replace Hillcrest and Bessborough schools.
Doyle said he was not surprised given the Progressive Conservatives who now run the government had promised to slash spending.
Gregg Ingersoll, superintendent of Anglophone East School District, said both schools would require mid-life upgrades to enable them to stay open for another 30 years.
"Both schools are still safe and can be used in the meantime," Ingersoll said.
Ernie Steeves, the province's new finance minister, said Wednesday that mid-life upgrades may not be off the table.
"We're hearing from a lot of parents that they don't want this new school, that they would rather have mid-life upgrades at Bessborough and Hillcrest," Steeves said on Information Morning Moncton.
Doyle said that's news to him.
He said the education council carried out a consultation process and he believes people are OK with a new facility, though there has been debate about where it should go.
Ingersoll said a mid-life upgrade would pose problems given it would involve stripping the structures down to their steel frames to replace electrical, heat and ventilation systems, floors and other components.
That would mean shifting students around as the work is carried out.
What to do with both schools was an issue the education council examined after a 2016 assessment of Bessborough by the provincial government.
It found an upgrade at Bessborough would cost about 70 per cent of the cost of building a new school. In that case, provincial policy says it's time to build a new school.
The assessment found it would need $10.6 million in upgrades and a $5.3 million expansion to bring it to current education standards.
The education council unanimously voted in 2017 to close Hillcrest School, built in 1954, and Bessborough School, built in 1958. It asked the province to build a new kindergarten to Grade 8 school.
Hillcrest, about 1.2 kilometres from Bessborough, is under capacity and also requires costly upgrades to remain open.
The location of a new school was a contentious issue in the provincial election.
Liberal Cathy Rogers suggested the province had already decided to build the new school on the Bessborough site, while PC candidate Moira Murphy vowed to fight to keep both open.
