Oxford School to Reopen by Early November
Parents in Oxford were delighted tonight to learn their children will return to the Oxford Regional Education Centre by the first week in November. Officials from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (TIR) said they are certain that needed repairs will be completed to allow the school to re-open before the change from Daylight Savings Time.
The Deputy Minister of TIR led tonight’s meeting on behalf of Zach Churchill, the Minister of Education. Paul LaFleche said, “He (the minister) uses us as a consultant. We service all government departments.”
An engineers report says anchors at the top of the block walls were deficient. Some were loose and some were missing. Without the anchors, there was movement in the walls, loosening the mortar between the blocks.
The mortar problem was identified early in August. A detailed study revealed the problem was widespread, so school board officials elected to close the school just days before it would have opened for September.
LaFleche deflected questions about how such a new school, built at a cost of over 18 million dollars just eight years ago, could have such problems.
Parents were upset at the timing and the lack of information prior to the decision to bus students to Pugwash to share facilities with the Cyrus Eaton Elementary and Pugwash District High.
One questioner asked when work will start and he ridiculed the official who said work already started two weeks ago. He yelled, “I go there about three times every day and there is nobody there.” In a brief exchange he added, “That’s just public relations. There is nobody working.”
The officials insisted that needed repairs will begin immediately. One said, “The work that has to get done, the stuff that’s really messy, the stuff you don’t want your kids in school for, that’s the work we’re focussing on first.”
They admitted that the entire job may not get done till next summer, the cosmetic work, but they will do what is needed to get the school opened for their self-imposed November deadline.
Another official said a lot was learned from the planning to move everything to Pugwash. They will use that information to make the return as easy as possible, minimizing the short term disruption. He added, “We’ve got work to do and we have a couple of weeks to do it.”
A number of other questions centred on concerns with buses. LaFleche invited people with busing questions to meet separately as they seemed more personal in nature.
The Deputy Minister says his department will set-up an inspection system for all schools across the province. They will conduct check-ups every year, early in the summer break.
The meeting itself was somewhat haphazard. There was no sound system and the audience struggled to hear from the panel at the centre ice area of the arena. There were a series of one-on-one discussions with questioners, at times inaudible to most of the gathering.
In the end, parents heard what they hoped for, a return to OREC as quickly as possible, but with a fixed date as a guide.
Paul LaFleche, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure is shown at right in the photo addressing the crowd at the Oxford Arena.