Education minister makes $24.9 million new high school announcement

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Tuesday was Education Minister Karen Casey’s third visit to Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School but no doubt her most memorable one for the hundreds that gathered to hear her speak as the minister announced that a new $24.9 million high school will be constructed for the area.

The projected opening date for the new high school is September 2011.

During a morning assembly on April 8, Casey said the school will be a “new, modern facility” and said to the community and the students and staff that will pass through it in the years to come, “You deserve the best and I’m proud to be able to deliver that.”

The first step of the process will be design and site selection, a process Casey admitted does take a fair bit of time. She said these steps will be carried out in 2008/09, adding the province will be ready to begin construction in 2009. Construction is anticipated to take two years.

The YCMHS building had been on the province’s books for renovations and an addition but Casey said priorities of the education department and Tri-County Regional School Board have since changed.

Tuesday’s announcement is for a new high school only, whereas two years ago the school board submitted a proposal that also included Yarmouth Junior High and Central and South Centennial elementary schools. School board chair Faye Haley said the board will continue to explore the needs of these other schools, which the board has said are in need of improvement or replacement.

Haley added part of that process will involve looking at the existing high school building to see what role it could play for students in the future.

“There’s a lot of life in the old girl yet,” she said, calling the announcement step one in a long-range plan.

Normally in cases like this the province considers three sites for the construction of a new school. While the site selection process has yet to get underway, Yarmouth Mayor Charles Crosby, saying the town would like to see the new high school built in the town, said during the assembly that the town has land it would like the province to consider as its site. The land is located on Forest Street and is owned by the town.

The land, located near Wesleyan Church, was once touted as a possible site for a new arena in the years prior to the construction of the Mariners Centre.

Mayor Crosby says the town would be willing to partner with the province and offer what assistance it can in building a new school within the town limits, even if its offer of land is rejected.

“They need water and sewer…the facilities are all here and there are kids in town that walk to school, if you put it somewhere else you’d have to bus everybody,” he said. “I think it’s good for the community to have that school in town. It’s good for the downtown merchants, most of the kids come downtown to eat, so it’s good business for them.”

Haley said the board will put out a public call for submissions from people who have land they think would be suitable for a new high school. The board is required under the Education Act to submit three sites for consideration to the government.

"There will be assessments done and the minister will, in the end...with the information provided, make the final decision," said Haley, who added a school steering committee will also soon be established.

A news release from the Department of Education indicates that more than 900 students in Grades 9 to 12 will attend the new high school, although only Grades 10-12 attend the existing school. Asked about the addition of Grade 9 to the new school, Yarmouth MLA Richard Hurlburt, first suggesting that may have been something the board came up with, said Casey – she was with him when he took the call – told him the addition of Grade 9 is something that will be discussed during the consultation period to see if a Grade 9 should be included in the new school.

“But we definitely don’t want to do anything that would have a negative implication on the other schools,” Hurlburt added.

Asked about the grade configuration included in the government's press release, board spokesperson Joe Hazelton said, "There’s been no discussion at our end of an grade configuration at the new school.”

Asked about the reference to the Grade 9 inclusion in the press release, a spokesperson for the education department said the grade configuration of the school is a board decision.

"I may have got it mixed up," he said. "Go with what the board says."