Stratford high school to cost almost $28M more than expected
CBC
The new high school set to be built in Stratford, P.E.I., will cost almost $28 million more than expected.
The province unveiled the design of the building, which will occupy about 14 hectares of the town's planned Community Campus off Bunbury Road, at a public meeting Tuesday afternoon.
The Stratford High School building will be "net-zero ready" and fully electric, the province said in a release.
It will use lots of natural light, and feature a two-storey library with a cafe, moveable walls in some areas and space for collaborative working.
Outside, there will be sports fields, space for outdoor classrooms and charging stations for cars and school buses.
"We, in this project, undertook a lot of consultations involving meetings with students and teachers and subject matter experts to try to get this right," said Dylan Mullally, chair of the Stratford Building Committee.
"What we hopefully landed on here today is a flexible building design that can adapt over the next 50 years of its lifespan."
The province estimates the costs will run to $79 million. That's $27.5 million more than the $51.5-million price tag the government had set in its latest capital budget.
"Costs have escalated on all fronts," said Education Minister Natalie Jameson. "I know that all those involved have tried to ensure that we're doing it in a fiscally responsible way. But that being said, we recognize the importance of making this a state-of-the-art facility.... We didn't want to cut corners."
The high school has been designed for 750 students, with areas set aside for future expansion.
It's slated to open fall 2025, though officials say it's still early in the tendering process and that the timeline may change.
Jill Burridge, finance minister and MLA for Stratford-Keppoch, had been lobbying for the school to be built for years before getting elected to the Legislature this spring.
"Our community has seen a lot of growth," she said. "We have a lot of young families here, a lot of potential students to flow this school. So we're super excited to have this in our community."
The Progressive Conservatives have also pledged to build a new junior high in the town.