Powell River’s French language school, École Côte-du-Soleil, is next on the provincial government’s list of schools to make more earthquake-sturdy.
Ministry of education officials announced the $2.8-million project Wednesday, June 24. The education ministry and School District 93, Conseil Scolaire Francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, have signed a project agreement to bring the school up to the latest seismic safety standards, the release stated.
“The safety of students in BC is paramount,” said education minister Peter Fassbender. “We are pleased to be moving forward with the seismic upgrades to École Côte-du-Soleil and many other schools across BC.”
Construction is slated to take about 14 months and students will remain at the school while construction is occurring, the ministry said.
The project will reinforce the school’s walls and roof throughout the facility. The school gym will be enlarged and existing walls throughout the classroom block will be fortified with four new blocked plywood shear walls and foundations.
“It is of the utmost importance to the Conseil Scolaire Francophone de la Colombie-Britannique for both its employees and its students to feel safe,” said Roger Hébert, president of Conseil Scolaire Francophone. “Through its acceptance of this funding agreement, we can see that it is also important to the ministry of education to invest in making schools safe for the whole community.”
When work is completed, L’École Côte-du-Soleil will have a nominal capacity of 195 students. The school reported a September 2015 enrolment of 106 students.
The BC Liberal government came under fire this spring for pushing the deadline back for completing school seismic upgrades for high-risk schools. A decade ago, the government promised to have all upgrades completed by 2020, but the education minister moved that deadline back 10 years in Vancouver and five elsewhere due to issues arising from disagreements over the scope of repairs and the province being unwilling to bring in portable classrooms during construction.
According to the ministry of education there are 146 projects completed, 15 under construction, nine proceeding to construction and 44 projects in various stages of planning.
A $3-million seismic upgrade on Henderson Elementary School was completed this winter.
As of January 2015, no other Powell River school has been identified as high-risk by the province’s seismic structural risk ratings.
