Consultant's report into Moncton High looms

An architectural consultant will be releasing a report into the future of the aging Moncton High School later this week.

The 75-year-old school will be emptied of students by mid-November after School District 2 decided it should be closed for the remainder of the school year for health and safety issues.

Even before the sudden closure, the school district had hired CS&P Architects to explore options for the city's largest high school considering the many health and safety issues facing the building.

Maureen O'Shaunessy, the lead consultant on the project, said the current issues with the school will have an impact on how they present their ideas to the public.

O'Shaunessy said she doesn't think it's made a big difference in how they think they should move forward.

But she said it will make a big difference to how they suggest the recommendation gets implemented. 

"We'll put some options on the table, we'll talk about them," O'Shaunessy said.

"They will form the basis of the recommendation that we'll present to the [District Education Council]. And I hope we have the opportunity to see that it moves forward, and moves forward in a timely way."

The consultants will take input from this week's final public meeting and then present their recommendation to the District Education Council next month.

Dealing with upheaval

Remi Levesque, the head of the history and French departments at Moncton High, has been teaching at the high school for 17 years.

While staff and students are dealing with upheaval and uncertainty now, Levesque said he's looking forward to the future.

"I think in a couple of months, I think things will be a lot easier, and we hope that the future will, you know, just be much better for everybody," Levesque said.

Moncton High School was shut down because of health and safety concerns including mould and structural problems. The 1,300 students are being moved to various schools throughout Moncton in two phases.

Grade 11 and 12 students will be sent to Edith Cavell school at the end of October. On Nov. 15, Grade 9 and 10 students will move into the new Northrop Frye School.

Education Minister Jody Carr toured Moncton High on Friday and called the school's conditions unacceptable.

"It's unbearable when you go into some of the rooms and you can smell the stench," he said shortly after the tour on Friday.

"You can see the water coming through the building. It's unacceptable."

Carr also said he wouldn't want to have his children attend the school.

The education minister formed a new committee, made up of a parent, a teacher, representatives from the affected schools and district officials.

The committee's task will be to come up with a plan in case students can't return to Moncton High next fall that does not involve shuffling other students around.

In light of the closures of Moncton High School and a Campbellton high school, Carr also announced last week the provincial government will conduct a structural review of the province's 229 schools constructed before 1980.