New Moncton high school not ready for students

The new Monctonhigh school under construction on the Royal Oaks site on ElmwoodDrive will not open on time for the start of classes next month.

Parents received notice Wednesdaythat construction is taking longer than planned, the most significant delay being the gymnasium floor, which has not cured to the point where crews can put the hardwood in yet.

Gregg Ingersoll, Anglophone East School District superintendent, said it is disappointing.

But after touring the school last Friday, it was clear there was still too much work left to do.

"We still are going to move in that's the good news and have a new high school, but certainly we're just going to have to wait a few more months," Ingersoll said.

"We decided it would be better, you know, not to move like in the middle of Octoberthat if we wait until later in January sometime to make that move just for the continuity for our students," he said.

"With the decision we made, it's going to give us more time to do everything right and get it all set up perfect for when the students move in."

Students will return to the old Moncton High in September and stay there until the new school is ready.

"Of course it's a disappointment, people wanted to get in," saidAnne-Marie Picone-Ford, chair of Moncton High's Parent School Support Committee.

But she says she thought it might happenand the committee had requested that if it did, the move be delayed until the end of the semester.

Moving students mid-term would have been disruptive, she said.

Some parents worry about the previous air quality issues at the old school, but the superintendent is reassuring parents the building is safe and has been maintained over the summer.

Picone-Ford agrees. "If they ended up going up there [to the new school], and it wasn't completed and there was dust flying all over the place and there was construction workers and all of that, then there was going to be a concern over the safety in that regard."

Meanwhile, the old Moncton High is still up for sale, a spokesperson fro the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure said. Having students back in the building until January won't change that, the spokesperson said.