Grandview Heights school construction facing delay
South Surrey high school students will have to live with overcrowding for a bit longer because of a construction delay for the new Grandview Heights secondary school.
The Surrey school district had more than 70,000 students last school year, and is the largest and one of the few growing districts in the province.
For years, crowding has been a problem, and getting students out of portables and into proper classrooms is a top election issue for school trustees.
A new 1,500-seat secondary school slated for the fast-growing Grandview Heights neighbourhood was intended to help relieve pressure on two high schools that serve South Surrey and White Rock: Earl Marriott and Semiahmoo. Together, they are 700 students over capacity.
“We need a new school now. We needed a new school years ago,” said Stacey MacDonald, chair of the Earl Marriott secondary parent advisory council.
“This is a big problem. It’s a really big problem if the school doesn’t open in 2020.”
Over the past two years, the province has promised expansions at three elementary schools, three new elementary schools (two in Clayton and one in Grandview Heights) and land for a new elementary school in Port Kells, as well as Grandview Heights secondary.
When the new high school was announced in 2016, the B.C. Liberal government said construction was to start in 2017 and be complete by the end of 2020. The school district hoped that it would be done in time for the start of the 2020-21 school year.
But there was an initial delay in starting the project because of discussions with the City of Surrey about siting of the school property, which is next to Pacific Heights elementary. But it was still believed the school would be ready for September 2020.
The project went to tender in July 2018, but school district spokesman Doug Strachan said all of the bids from the trades came back higher than the $60.6-million budget that was agreed upon by the school district and provincial government.
“It’s a reflection of the market,” Strachan said.
The school district had to draw up a new budget and submit it to the Ministry of Education, which will bring it to the Treasury Board for approval.
Strachan was unable to say when the project would go back to tender, or when construction will start. “There’s still variables out there, but we’re six months later than what we’d anticipated at this point,” he said.
This means the school will likely be ready for occupancy in the middle of the 2020-21 school year, and students will change schools at that point.
“I just can’t even imagine the disruption of splitting a school apart halfway through the year,” said MacDonald.
Strachan said everyone wants the new school operational as soon as possible.
School board chair Laurie Larsen and the city met with Education Minister Rob Fleming in the past week to discuss the matter.
“The minister shared our concern that we need to move as quickly as possible on this,” Strachan said. “I think all parties are working to keep the delay as short as possible.”
Fleming said in a statement that the NDP is working to meet the urgent need for school spaces in Surrey. “There are challenges in the fast-growing community including rapid construction cost escalations,” Fleming said. “We will continue to work in partnership with the Surrey school district and the city to get schools built as quickly as possible.”
MacDonald said the students and staff at Earl Marriott and other crowded schools have been patient and the administrations have done the best they can, but they can’t wait any longer. “It’s time for a new school and Treasury Board needs to pony up the money,” she said.