27 North Van school still need seismic upgrades
North Shore News
Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - A10
James Weldon
THE province has announced it will be paying for seismic upgrades to West Vancouver's last unsafe public school, even as North Vancouver is struggling to fix up 27 of its own.
At an event Feb 20, West Vancouver-Capilano MLA Ralph Sultan said the school district will receive $1.3 million to finish strengthening West Vancouver secondary. The money will help reinforce floors and walls in the school's north gymnasium and several adjoining rooms.
The change represents the final substatial renovation needed to bring the district's public education facilities up to provincial standards. Once complete, it will bring a 10-year effort by those in charge.
But while West Vancouver prepares to wrap up the project, North Vancouver is just beginning to tackle a daunting seismic to-do list. Upgrades to Windsor secondary were completed a couple of years ago and some of the newer schools already conform, but that leaves 27 more in need of reinforcement.
Work on the first two, Carisbrooke elementary and Canyon Heights elementary, got underway last summer. The projects which will cost $7 million and $4.7 million respectively, are expected to be finished at the end of this school year.
The reason for the discrepancy between the districts is not entirely clear, but it appears West Vancouver is ahead partly because it got going sooner.
"We've been doing this work over the last decade at least." said Geoff Jopson, West Vancouver's superintendent of schools. "Everyone - parents, staff, students - wants to be sure the schools are absolutely as safe as possible."
Irene Young, secretary treasurer for North Vancouver, suggested her district kicked off efforts about five years later.
"There was no seismic structural program until 2004." said Young.
West Vancouver is also a smaller community, she noted. With just 17 schools to North Vancouver's 38, the upgrading process was likely less onerous there.
Nonetheless, she emphasized that the student safety was paramount in North Vancouver, and that the district was working hard to address the issue.
Over the next three years, North Vancouver will begin to chip away at the remainder of its list. The province recently approved $32.4 million in funding to strengthen Ridgeway and Queen Mary elementaries (a project to which the district will contribute $6.6 million). Work on Ridgeway is slated to start this fall, and Queen Mary's facelift will start in the summer 2011.
Carson Graham secondary will be almost completely demolished and rebuilt starting in 2010. The provincial government recently earmarked $38 million for that project.
That still leaves 22 schools without funding for upgrades, but the wheels are in motion, said Young. The district will be applying to the province for funding for several more projects in the near future, she said. "We're trying to tackle our highest priorities."
The process is a slow one, however, due to the analysis and evaluation involved. And funding is never a given.
"They're looking at all 60 school districts," she said. "It's a bit of a give and take."
