Moncton High closed over safety concerns

Students and staff at Moncton High School are being moved for the remainder of the school year so officials can assesshealth and safety concerns at the 75-year-old facility.

Karen Branscombe, the district superintendent, announced on Friday that the city's largest high school would be closed to students and staff.

"We have had more than 240 work orders from this school in the last year and a half and a list of concerns that continues to grow," Branscombe said in a statement.

"Moving staff and students out will allow us to do a thorough assessment and properly address concerns. It's simply more efficient for both those doing the remediation and for those trying to teach and learn."

The school's 1,300 students will remain in the school until the end of the month, when the contingency plans come into force.

The students will be 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.

To make room for the incoming Moncton High School students, 235 kindergarten to Grade 8 students will transfer to Queen Elizabeth School.

2nd phase of move to begin Nov. 15

The second phase of the contingency plan will roll out on Nov. 15.

At that point, Grade 9 and 10 students will move into the new Northrop Frye School.

The students from Magnetic Hill and Evergreen Park schools, who were supposed to move into Northrop Frye in 2011, will remain at their school.

The school district said the students at Magnetic Hill and Evergreen Park schools "will readjust to operate as two separate schools with some slight changes to class make-up."

The school closed for six days in September after some steel pillars were discovered to be rusting away and work is still being done to deal with mould on the ceilings.

Several teachers later submitted a letter claiming the 75-year-old building is causing them health problems.

The school district, WorkSafeNB, the Department of Education and the Department of Health investigated the teachers' concerns.

A group of 30 parents met on Thursday and expressed concernover what they believe was too much secrecy surrounding the future of the school, which first opened in 1935.