School may be out for the summer but that doesn’t mean work stops in School District 43.
Each year, the school district uses the summer months to do repairs, with $5.5 million in funds from the Annual Facilities Grant provided by the province, plus other capital funds.
Major projects representing several million dollars include:
• Finishing the Banting middle school parking lot to complete a school rebuild project.
• Beginning a six-classroom addition at Westwood elementary school in Port Coquitlam.
• Replacing the boiler at Mountain View elementary in Coquitlam.
• Doing mechanical/HVAC upgrades at Dr. Charles Best secondary and Summit middle in Coquitlam, and PoCo's Hazel Trembath elementary.
• Installing a new dust collector system for the shop room at Hillcrest middle.
• Converting classrooms at Port Moody secondary, Montgomery middle and Maple Creek middle to accommodate enrolment.
• Renovating the library at PoCo's James Park elementary.
• Painting the exterior at at Pinetree secondary school and community centre along with Terry Fox secondary, Scott Creek middle, Cedar Drive elementary and Parkland elementary.
• Installing drainage, flooring, exterior lighting and water stations throughout the district.
According to Ken Hoff, assistant director for communications and community relations, the water station installation is part of an ongoing project to encourage staff and students to stop using plastic bottles.
“The intention is to have at least one water station in each school in order to help eliminate plastic bottle use.,” Hoff said in an email to The Tri-City News.
“This initiative was begun last year and will continue into next year. While there is no ban on single-use bottles in place, students and staff are encouraged to use refillable water bottles. SD43 has also recently implemented a robust recycling program that includes collection of plastic water bottles and everyone is encouraged to dispose of items in the appropriate collection bin [organics, mixed recyclable, refundable and waste only],” he said.
School resumes Tuesday, Sept. 3.
