School district OKs $40M high school
By Wawmeesh G. Hamilton - Alberni Valley News - February 01, 2008Photo courtesy School District 70 An aerial view of Echo Centre, above left, with Sweeney Field in the centre – the proposed location for a new Alberni District Secondary School.
The Winter Olympics won’t be the only big opening ceremony happening in 2010. If all goes according to plan, officials will also be cutting the ribbon at the entrance to a new $40 million secondary school in Port Alberni.
School District 70 trustees voted to proceed with plans to build the new school at Tuesday night’s school board meeting.
“We were all just so excited when we heard this morning,” said ADSS vice-principal Nora Moncur.
“This is a great thing for the staff and students at ADSS, and for the community of Port Alberni as well.”
The board hopes to build the new school, which will replace the existing ADSS, next to Echo Centre on Sweeney Field, which the district owns and leases to the city. They hope to finalize a construction contract at the end of 2008, and open in September 2010, district secretary treasurer Jerry Linning said Wednesday.
“This has been 20 years in the making, but discussions became more serious after 2005 when the ministry approved the capital project in principle,” he said. “We’ll be working with stakeholder groups now to make sure we build a school we can all be proud of.”
The school will be built with a minimum impact on the environment, said Linning. While a design hasn’t been finalized, Linning gave a glimpse at a possible scenario.
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The number of school-age children is expected to decline over the next 25 years, so the new school won’t be as large as the existing high school, which can house 1,300 students, said Linning.
As well, using half the property and building a two-storey building would leave a lighter environmental footprint than a single level school would, he said.
The district-owned property is zoned as park land, and would have to be rezoned to build a school, Linning said. The property sits amid Echo Centre, Bob Dailey stadium, the Alberni Valley Multiplex and North Island College, and would be a nice fit, he said.
The new school will draw to a close the old ADSS, which was built in 1951. While the building is storied, it also has a lot of miles on it. In a ministry of education infrastructure test, ADSS scored 50 per cent – one of the lowest scores in B.C. “The school reached the end of its useful life,” said Linning.
Most of the buildings at the old ADSS will be torn down and the land re-zoned to be sold as residential, but not all of it.
The 1,200-seat auditorium will be left standing to be used by community groups, but with one caveat, said Linning. “It’s going to require a new heating system because the old one is hooked up to the school.”
The last major school construction project in Port Alberni was the $2.1 million upgrade to Eighth Avenue elementary school in 1998.
reporter@albernivalleynews.com
