Portables durable, and delayed
New portables still under construction at Willows and Quadra elementary schools are expected to be ready for students at least by Nov. 14, and possibly before.
The three buildings, being constructed by Greater Victoria school district staff, are designed to last for 50 years, versus the 10- to 20-year lifespan that conventional portables tend to have. Willows is getting two of the inhouse portables and Quadra one.
“They’re built to last,” said district secretary-treasurer Mark Walsh. “They’re so well-insulated that they’re very environmentally friendly.”
Director of facilities David Loveridge said the new “classroom units” deserve a name other than portables.
“We’re not calling them portables,” he said. “We’re trying to find a new name for them. The concept here was to build something new that was educationally different.”
The new buildings are designed for up to 29 students and do not have bathrooms, but are located close to the main school.
This is the first time the district has gone with staff-built portables. They are estimated to cost slightly more than conventional portables initially, about $150,000 each.
As the work on the three structures wraps up, the district is preparing for two more — one at Central Middle School and one at Northridge Elementary School. The Central project will start as soon as the others are done and could be complete by January, while the Northridge project is expected to be finished later in the school year.
Walsh said the added time needed for the staff-built portables has led to some shuffling of classes. At Willows, that meant two classes in the gymnasium for a while, with one now located in the library.
“I think one portable will likely be finished a couple of days before the other, and then we’ll get the gym free and then the library free,” Walsh said.
“No matter what, they will have the gym for a Remembrance Day ceremony.
“We really appreciate patience of our staff, our students and our parents.”
There has been frustration from some parents about the delay in completion, said Audrey Smith, president of the Greater Victoria Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils.
“It’s hard to expand schools to be big enough to spread out in a really short time frame.”
The hope was that the Willows and Quadra portables would be done in time for the beginning of the school year, but a number of factors got in the way, Walsh said.
Work on a refurbished conventional portable at Margaret Jenkins Elementary, earmarked for use as daycare space, is also in the finishing stages.
Delays with the staff-built portables began with supply issues, Walsh said. Also affecting the situation was the concurrent need to create 84 new classrooms in the district, the result of last fall’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling that B.C. teachers’ 2002 contract language on class size and composition had to be restored.
Walsh said that when it was realized the new portables wouldn’t be finished on time, the decision was made to reallocate crews to other jobs to ensure as many tasks as possible were done by the time classes began.
Issues with portables don’t seem to be confined to the Greater Victoria district, Walsh said.
“We’ve heard anecdotally that there’s other districts around the province still waiting for their [conventional] ones to get delivered.”