The BC NDP announced Mission will get a brand new high school if re-elected.
Maple Ridge-Mission candidate Bob D’Eith, and Abbotsford-Mission candidate Pam Alexis made the joint announcement at the site of the 70-year-old École Mission Senior Secondary – the district’s only high school, which serves over 1,300 students.
“A John Horgan Government will put the needs of Mission students, their families, and our community first,” Alexis said. “We need a new school that provides a quality learning environment and helps deliver the best education possible for our students.”
École Secondary was due for a seismic upgrade, which would come at a cost of $66 million dollars. Instead, plans are in the works to replace it with brand new school at a cost of $87 million.
The candidates said the current school grounds are big enough to allow construction to take place without interfering with its operations.
The BC NDP said in the news release the funding will come out of $3 billion promised for the Recovery Investment Fund, which aims to build various infrastructure projects at the community level.
D’Eith touted the NDP’s record on building and upgrading over 100 provincial schools.
“This is the only school serving students in grades 10 to 12, and with our community growing, the demands are going to increase,” D’Eith said. “Building a new school gives us a solid place to grow from and will allow us to accommodate more students with greater community activity.”
The new school will have the latest energy-efficient technology to reduce emissions under the NDP’s CleanBC plan to address climate change, according to the news release.
“Year after year, the old BC Liberal government neglected the health and usability of B.C. schools,” D’Eith said. “It was short-term thinking about a long-term need. We want to help the community build a school that will serve the needs of students and generations for decades to come.”
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