About 500 students scheduled to attend a new middle school in Langford this fall will have to wait a while longer.
The opening of Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School is being pushed back to November due to construction delays caused by shortages of labour and building materials, the Sooke School District said Wednesday.
The neighbouring elementary school, PEXSISEN Elementary, will open on time and will take some of the students from Centre Mountain Lellum, said the district.
The new middle and elementary schools, at 3100 Constellation Ave., are being built at a cost of $88.6 million and are expected to house 1,200 students.
Students registered in Centre Mountain Lellum will be temporarily assigned to other schools, with Grade 6 students going to Spencer Middle School, Grade 7 students to PEXSISEN Elementary School, and Grade 8s to Dunsmuir Middle School. Portable classrooms at Spencer and Dunsmuir schools will be used for the overflows.
Ravi Parmar, chair of the Sooke School Distinct, said key building materials are still needed for the final occupancy permit, including fire suppression systems and windows.
He said those materials are on a barge in the U.S.
Parmar said that chronic worker shortages with main contractor Farmer Construction and its subcontractors have also played a role in the delay.
“It’s unfortunate that people are getting sick with COVID-19 … it’s not an illness that can [be alleviated] in a couple of days,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is something that’s affecting a lot of industries.”
Parmar said Farmer Construction has done incredible work on the district’s ambitious two-year plan to build the two schools. “In other districts, it can take five, six or seven years to build a school,” he said.
Kristen McGillivray, manager of communications for the district, said both projects remain on budget.
Superintendent Scott Stinson was apologetic for the delay.
“We understand this delay postpones the excitement of our students and staff who were set to move into a new school,” Stinson said in a letter to families.
He said a contingency plan is in place to support student success and minimize disruptions as much as possible.
“As we go through the first few days and weeks of school, staff will be ready to accommodate changes to the contingency plan that may not be working practically or if there are areas where we can improve based on feedback from our students, staff and families,” he said.
The district said notifications of the Centre Mountain Lellum delay went out to school staff Tuesday. Emails were sent Wednesday to families registered to attend all of the affected schools.
School principals will be able to provide additional details in the coming days and weeks via email, said the district.
Classes for the 2022-23 school year are scheduled to start on Tuesday, Sept. 6.
Parmar said the district expects to add between 400 and 500 new students this year, bringing the total population to about 12,200.
Last year, the district added 827 new students in what was a record year for new enrolments, making Sooke the fastest-growing school district per capita in the province.
The Sooke School District says on its registration portal that Happy Valley Elementary and Belmont High are at full capacity.
dkloster@timescolonist.com
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