A new school on the Eastern Shore that’s slated to replace both Gaetz Brook Junior High and Eastern Shore District High School is a step closer to reality today as the province issued a request for proposal for the design of the building.
“The province of Nova Scotia is committed to building modern schools and classrooms across this province,” said Kevin Murphy, MLA for the Eastern Shore.
“Now it’s our turn on the Eastern Shore to participate in that process.”
Education Minister Derek Mombourquette announced on Friday that the province was issuing an request for proposal for the collaborative design-build of the new school, calling it a significant day for the community.
READ MORE: Community divided on new Eastern Shore school site
“That’s a big step in the process,” said Mombourquette.
“We know this is a very important project for the entire Eastern Shore and this one has generated a lot of interest and a lot of conversation.”
Conversation around the project though hasn’t always been positive.
While talk of the new school has been ongoing for years, in January the province officially announced that the East Chezzetcook Industrial Park had officially been chose as the new site location for the school — this prompted immediately backlash from the community with many raising concerns over the lack of community consultation.
“I’m very disappointed in the process,” says Musquodoboit Harbour resident Colin Cameron.
Cameron says he’s been involved with community development for years, and has been involved on this particularly project since 2008 through the Ratepayers’ Residents’ Association which is now called the Musquodoboit Harbour and Are Community Association.
“According to their own site selection they were supposed to reject the existing site first before they examined any other site and all we’ve seen is redacted technical reports on the existing site and then they produced blank pages on the other sites,’ said Cameron.
“It’s not been a transparent process.”
When the site location was first announced, it was under Stephen McNeil’s liberal government with Zach Churchill as the Education Minister.
In February Premier Iain Rankin was sworn is as Premier and announced Derek Mombourquette as the new Education Minister. Shortly after Mombourquette put plans for the school on hold saying that he would hold the community engagement process many had been calling for.
That process wrapped up in May and earlier this month Mombourquette confirmed that the province would be moving ahead with the Industrial Park as the chosen location.
“We put an independent process in place that asked a lot of questions and we received hundreds and hundreds of responses to the question of location, to the question of future growth,” said Mombourquette.
“Based on that information that’s why we’re here today, this space is one that allows for growth around the school it’s the one that in the over 900 responses that we received this was the preferred choice.”
Cheryl Waterfield has been a teacher at Gaetz Brook Junior High for over two decades and attended the announcement Friday morning and says she’s excited that the process is finally moving forward.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that we have a negative history with how this site was selected,” said Waterfield.
“The fact that so many people are upset at the site selection should not take away from the fact that our kids need a new school.”
The new school is currently expected to open for the 2023-2024 school year.
Comments