Parents are expressing disappointment after hearing that a seismic upgrade for Shoreline Middle School will not go ahead as planned in 2016-17, with low enrolment cited as the primary reason.
“We’re obviously very deeply concerned that they’re making a decision about upgrading the schools based on enrolment instead of risk,” said Edwin Hubert, a member of the Shoreline Parent Advisory Council. “Shoreline is a high-risk school and our kids deserve to be safe, as well as a school that has higher enrolment.”
He said there is a “vicious cycle” of upgraded schools taking potential students away from less-attractive facilities.
“There are a lot of kids that live in [Shoreline’s] neighbourhood that go to other schools because they want to go to the nicer schools.” He said Shoreline is an excellent school that is “in desperate need of a facelift.”
Shoreline principal Nadine Naughton said the postponement came as a surprise, but she is confident the wait for seismic renewal won’t be long. “We still feel pretty hopeful that it’s going to move forward in the next year.”
Greater Victoria school board vice-chairwoman Diane McNally said trustees were “pretty shocked” with the news.
The Shoreline project, recently estimated at about $4 million, is part of the Greater Victoria school district’s five-year capital plan, along with seismic work at Cedar Hill Middle School and Victoria High School. Eight district schools need seismic upgrades; a project at Cloverdale Traditional School is nearing completion.
The district has had “quite a run” of seismic upgrades, said secretary-treasurer Mark Walsh. At Shoreline, preparations were being made for the seismic project on the assumption that it would happen, he said.
“In the past, we’ve never had any issues with final approval, but, unfortunately, we’ve just been informed that Shoreline will not be getting final approval at this time.”
Ministry of Education numbers show Shoreline to be at about 63 per cent capacity, and it is now slightly less, Walsh said. “Their forward-looking numbers don’t suggest much of a shift from that.”
Shoreline can hold 424 students when operating at capacity and is currently at 250.
But Walsh said the district is confident enrolment will rise.
“French immersion is growing, we’ve got a significant aboriginal-student population that’s also growing, those kind of things,” he said. “And the neighbourhood itself is growing.”
Education Minister Mike Bernier noted the district has a number of schools in line for seismic refits. “One of the things we’ve committed [to] with the Victoria school district is to continue making investments that they need for seismic upgrades,” he said. “Of course, one of the directions we’d look at is to ensure that they have some schools that are obviously at capacity that need to be seismically upgraded, so we’ve asked them to focus on those ones specifically first.”
A Ministry of Education statement said such district facilities as Reynolds Secondary School (at 122 per cent capacity) and Arbutus Middle School (at 88 per cent capacity) are also considered to be high seismic risks. The statement said the ministry is looking for a better understanding of the future of the district’s low-enrolment schools, and hopes to get that as the district progresses with its long-term facilities plan.
NDP education critic Rob Fleming said the Shoreline decision will likely delay upgrades to other schools as well. “It just shows that you can’t believe what this government says. They said it would be all done by 2020 and we’re hopelessly behind.”
Elsewhere in the region, seismic projects are underway at Dunsmuir Middle School, Parkland Secondary School and Cordova Bay Elementary School.
