After years of deliberation, Walnut Park Elementary School will be replaced with a new modernized school.
The announcement was made official this morning by BC Minister of Education, Rob Fleming as he visited Smithers and Walnut Park Elementary.
“I’m pleased to announce we are supporting the full replacement of Walnut Park Elementary school,” said Fleming. “This new school will provide a bright and modern learning environment that will help students thrive in their education.”
The project is budgeted for $28.5 million with the Government of BC covering $27.6 million; the Bulkley Valley School District will contribute the remaining $900,000.
Fleming says he had a chance to visit Walnut Elementary late last year and states the reasoning for the new school.
“This new school was greatly needed. There’s an unstable foundation here and potential deficiencies that have been around for decades. This was a high priority item for the Ministry of Education and I’m pleased we had the project approved in such short order.”
Construction on the new building is set to begin in March of 2019, and the hopes are the doors will be open to students in September 2020.
The project will see the construction of a two-story school on the northwest area of the current site, with space for 440 elementary students. The new school will have open and collaborative learning spaces and will be built to highly efficient Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold standards.
Local M-L-A and Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development Doug Donaldson was at the announcement and had the pleasure of being MC for the event.
Donaldson provides us with his take on the importance of this announcement for not only Smithers but rural communities as a whole.
“This is a major contribution to rural communities and that cannot be overlooked. We want rural communities such as Smithers to be more attractive for everyone looking for a place to call home. In order to stay in rural communities, you must have a good quality of life and the school system is apart of that. This is a real investment in rural communities and will give young people a good educational environment.”