Land has been levelled on the SD62-owned site on the south slope of Skirt Mountain. (Twitter/Scott Stinson)

Land has been levelled on the SD62-owned site on the south slope of Skirt Mountain. (Twitter/Scott Stinson)

Bear Mountain land levelled for possible future school

Land owned by SD 62 has been levelled, but no new school has been announced

  • Apr. 11, 2019 12:00 a.m.

A plot of land owned by the Sooke School District on south Skirt Mountain has been levelled in preparation for a future school.

SD62 superintendent Scott Stinson tweeted on April 4 that the site had been levelled. He said no school has been announced yet, “but (the) site will be ready for us as need dictates.”

Stinson tweeted that it is “exciting” to see the site has been levelled.

READ MORE: Land purchased for new elementary school in north Langford

The land, which sits at the southern slope of Skirt Mountain — also known as Bear Mountain — was purchased in May of last year with plans to build an elementary school that will service the new housing development on the mountain and the north side of the Trans-Canada Highway.

With growing communities and the addition of developments in the area, the province determined an additional school will be needed to relieve pressures on nearby Lakewood and Millstream elementary schools.

The province provided $6.6 million last year to purchase the six-acre site in north Langford before development grew even more.

ALSO READ: Construction to begin on Colwood’s Royal Bay Secondary expansion

The Sooke School District is continuously growing and has received 5,070 elementary school registrations, 2,460 middle school registrations and 3,080 secondary school registrations for the 2019/20 school year. There have been 850 kindergarten registrations for the coming school year so far.

The District expects to receive another 100 to 200 new students from now until next September, which will bring the total number of registrations to about 11,200.

shalu.mehta@goldstreamgazette.com


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