B.C. Minister of Education Rob Fleming (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Parkcrest Fire

Education Minister will push to fast-track replacement for Parkcrest Elementary

Sep 6, 2019 | 4:22 PM

VANCOUVER — B.C. Education Minister Rob Fleming says he wants to see Parkcrest Elementary School rebuilt – and quicker than a typical school build.

Parkcrest was destroyed by fire Thursday (Sept. 5).

At a news conference today, Kamloops-Thompson School District officials said a replacement for the school would likely cost $18-20 million and could take two years to build.

Speaking to CFJC Today from Vancouver, Fleming says he’d like to see that timeline shortened.

“That would be a normal timeline, but we’ll see if we can’t get our heads together and see if we can do a bit better than that,” said Fleming. “City Hall might be able to help us with permitting, we may be able to get to tendering as quick as we can. We’ll all play our role to make sure that we can get a replacement school happening for the Parkcrest community as soon as we can.”

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The provincial government is notoriously tight with funding for new school builds. When Fleming announced a $34.5 million expansion to Valleyview Secondary in April, it was lauded as the first major capital funding announcement for the Kamloops south shore since 2001. The North Shore saw a new Trades and Technology Centre open at Norkam Secondary in 2015.

Fleming says funding for Parkcrest will come from a different stream than most school builds: the Self-Insurance Program.

“We have a self-insured program for when these rare instances happen — when a school is destroyed. We spend the money that we need to create a replacement facility. I imagine we’ll be starting work fairly soon on what it will take to rebuild a school of that size — 350 student spaces. We’ll have some cost estimates and we’ll work with the school district to do that as quickly as we can.”

In the meantime, Fleming says his ministry will support the district’s efforts to find alternate learning locations for students and staff.

He says he was shocked to hear news of the fire Thursday.

“It’s devastating for a school community to see their institution go up in flames and all the memories that go along with it. My heart goes out to the families, the teaching and support staff, the administration,” said Fleming. “I have reached out the school board just to say, ‘Look, the Ministry of Education will do whatever is required of us to help the community settle in these difficult times.'”