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NEW SCHOOLS

School District 73 making progress on capital projects

Jul 24, 2020 | 4:19 PM

KAMLOOPS — Construction on one capital project is well underway for SD 73, while they continue to work on plans for another.

The Valleyview Secondary expansion is taking shape, as the contractor tasked with building the new parking lot is making significant progress on their portion of the project. Art McDonald, director of facilities for SD73, says the main contractor is preparing the site and should start construction within a week. McDonald is confident construction won’t be too disruptive once school gets back underway in September.

“The disruption should be minimal to school, notwithstanding the fact they’re down one playfield,” McDonald says. “We have a pretty good plan. We’ve worked closely with the school to minimize disruption to the students. It’s what we need to do to make this project happen.”

It’s been nearly 11 months since Parkcrest Elementary burned down. McDonald says the first report on replacing that school has been approved by the Ministry of Education and he and his team are now preparing another. He says if all goes well, construction on a replacement school could be underway by next summer.

“Over the next two to three months, we’ll be working on the other report that’s required and hopefully after that, we’ll get funding approval. At that point, we’ll put out a request for architects and start designing. Hopefully, by this time next year, we’ll be building.”