New Middle School build gets approval and funding with announcement today from North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice delivered on 
the long desired addition for SD52
announcing plans for a new Middle School in the community

It's a proposal that goes back over a decade, and one that has seen more than one or two campaign promises come and go, but this morning at Prince Rupert Middle School, North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice announced that a new Middle School for the city is on the horizon.

The official word of funding for the project coming through a statement from Rachna Singh, the Minister of Education and Child Care. 

“Prince Rupert residents have waited a long time for a safe and modern learning facility for middle-school students. I’m so proud to announce that our government is taking action to ensure students in the area will soon have an upgraded middle school to learn, play and grow for generations to come.”

The Province is providing $126.8 million to make sure 600 students will be learning in a seismically safer school by replacing Prince Rupert Middle School. 

As their information release notes: The new school will include the addition of a neighbourhood learning centre. In keeping with the Province’s CleanBC emissions-reduction goals, the school will be designed with the aim of reducing greenhouse gases by more than 50% to match the LEED Gold standard. Mass-timber construction will also be incorporated into portions of the school as part of B.C.’s commitment through the Mass Timber Action Plan in construction in public-sector buildings.

Ms Rice who hosted the announcement event at PRMS this morning noted  of the need for safe learning environments as part of today's announcement, which makes for a pretty good Back to school moment for the School District.

“Making schools seismically safer is a top priority for our government. Prince Rupert students and teachers deserve a safe learning environment, and I am thrilled our government is able to deliver on this much-needed replacement school.”

School Board Chair Kate Toye observed as to the long promised replacement for the community. 

 “This has been a long project in the making with many people working together to get us to this place. It is wonderful to know we will be building an innovative school that holds the students and their learning at the centre. We, the board, are also thrilled to know that we will be building a seismically safer school that is also designed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, a benefit for future generations.”

No timeline towards a start date or completion date was included in the notes from today; nor was there any indication where exactly the new Middle School will be built.

The prospect of the "gold shovel moment" when dirt is moved to officialy launch the construction phase, was noted as still a year, or possibly two years away.

Towards the process ahead the MLA noted that with the money now locked in,  the next steps will be the  posting of a Request For Proposals towards the process which will move the design and building program forward.

"As you can imagine we're beyond excited about this project, some of us have known about it since July and have had to keep it a secret and it's been very difficult, so this day is very welcome" -- Acting SD52 Superintendent Sandra Pond

As for today's announcement, particularly on the anticipation for the work ahead, the Board chair was correct in her observation as was Ms Rice; with the long running quest for a proposed addition to the listings of school board facilities, one that has made for stops and starts.

And a process that delivered little information along the way.

Other than making for some passing comments from the Board of Education at a June 14th rezoning for property adjacent to the current Middle school, that for an apartment. building, the updates on the path forward for the project were few and far between up until today.

We last explored the topic one year ago, with the return of the school year in 2022, a review which provided some of our archived items that tracked the ebb and flow for the proposed new middle school.

To give a sense of the time that has passed towards today's most welcome announcement, the prospect of a Middle school was first raised with the merger of Prince Rupert Secondary and Charles Hays Secondary more than a decade ago in 2011.

The announcement (which has been well received through her social media feed)  is however, another feather in the cap for the MLA, who in recent months has done some strong work in making the case for Prince Rupert with the Provincial government. 

The full announcement from today is available here.

More notes from the School District can be reviewed here.

Items of interest from the Legislature are available for review here.