It’s not set to open for another year, but Willoughby’s new secondary school has already undergone an expansion.
The new R.E. Mountain Secondary School will have an additional eight classroom spaces when it opens in September, 2019, the Langley School District announced on Tuesday.
The current R.E. Mountain Secondary, located at 7755 202A St., is operating over capacity and using 21 portables to accommodate students.
It will be converted to a middle school when the new building is complete.
Construction began last August, and the new school will be located adjacent to the existing campus. It will be double the size of the current R.E. Mountain building.
Originally announced by the Ministry of Education in December, 2017 as a 1,500 seat school, that capacity has now been upped to 1,700 with the additional classroom space.
Early in the planning and design stages, the Langley Board of Education included a ‘shell space’ — an area within the building that would allow for expansion at a later date — but decided that the maximum space available should be utilized immediately.
Both the Langley School District and Ministry of Education are contributing $1.8 million each to fully build out the space.
“The Langley School Board is pleased to announce the addition of eight classroom spaces to what will be the new R. E. Mountain Secondary School,” said Board Chair Robert McFarlane in a press release.
“Early planning by the Board of Education and co-operation with the Ministry of Education in adding these student spaces will be helpful in addressing the rapid growth in the region.”
According to the press release, including the additional space early in the process will be less expensive than expanding the space in the future.
