Years after parents' complaints, new school in Bay Roberts inches closer to construction

A new school in Bay Roberts is one step closer to reality, now that the provincial government has issued a public tender.

The new facility will eventuallyreplace Coley's Point Primary and house students from K-3, near Amalgamated Academy on Eric Dawe Drive.

Some parents have complained for years that overcrowding has been a major problem.

In 2016, school council president Lisa Neville told CBCshe was fed up.

"We've been in the budget since 2013 and it's pretty frustrating right now for a parent and for someone who sits on the board to watch other schools go up on the Avalon. Our school keeps getting put off," she said at the time.

The new, single-storey structure will include:

• Eighteen classrooms.
  
• A gym.
  
• A music room.
  
• A cafeteria.

Construction is expected to start in the spring of 2019, with the project scheduled to be finished in early 2021.

More schools to build

Three more tenders forschool constructions are expected to be posted over the next several months.

Those include Paradise Intermediate, the facility that will ultimately replace Bay d'Espoir Academy which was destroyed by an arsonist and a reconstruction for Gander Academy.

Construction on all three projects will start in 2019 and finish in 2021.

Mobile Central High and St. Peter's Academy are expected to be completed in 2019, according to a release issued by government Friday afternoon.

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