The purchase of a two-acre property on Amy Road off West Shore Parkway in Langford marks the latest preparatory step for the 2015-16 school year in the Sooke School District.
The lot, which cost SD62 approximately $1.83 million, will be the new site for school bus operations for the district and will include the main yard, maintenance shop and administrative offices.
The purchase cost comes out of revenues earned with the sale of the Belmont secondary and existing bus yard properties to Sobey’s, which operates Thrifty Foods in B.C.
“(The sale) facilitated the need for the bus yard to be relocated; that was part of the deal,” said Harold Cull, district secretary-treasurer.
As for the Amy Road lot, he said the majority of the engineering work has been done, and the district is now in the process of designing the layout of the property and buildings.
District staff will be working hard to ensure the move to the new location is completed in time for the new school year, Cull said.
“We wouldn’t want to have to reroute the buses during the school year. It would make it a big challenge to do that.”
Co-ordinating transportation within the district by next fall will be a crucial facet of its operations, with the new Belmont and Royal Bay secondaries slated for opening, as well as the reconfiguration of certain elementary and middle schools on the West Shore and Sooke.
The school board administrative offices will remain where they are, at 3143 Jacklin Rd.
