Two B.C. ministers toured a new pre-fabricated building at Coquitlam’s Scott Creek Middle School today, Feb. 4, to show the success of the school construction model in the province.
Bowinn Ma, minister of infrastructure, a newly created ministry that’s in charge of building schools, and Education Minister Lisa Beare visited the Lansdowne Drive school with officials from School District 43 (SD43), including Ivano Cecchini, executive director of facilities and planning services, who led the tour, as well as board of education chair Michael Thomas and trustees.
Scott Creek Middle is one of four schools in B.C. that have opened in the past month with pre-fab additions or modular buildings; the other three are in Surrey, Kelowna and Smithers.
At Scott Creek Middle, the new two-storey pre-fab opened up 250 more school seats in the growing neighbourhood and came at half the cost of erecting a new school, Ma said.
In the fall of 2023, the provincial government allocated $500 million for pre-fab additions and modular buildings at schools; Scott Creek’s structure came in at $15 million.
During the tour, the ministers remarked on the bright areas and high ceilings in the classrooms, which also have sliding walls to make bigger, fully accessible learning spaces.
Ma said pre-fabs are different from portables, which often have negative connotations.
“Pre-fabs are a faster and cheaper way to build,” she said at the news conference, adding, “This is a success story. It took half the time and half the costs.”
Dr. Charles Best Secondary will also soon get another pre-fab building: a 12-classroom addition to the west of the Como Lake Avenue school building, with 300 more seats.
“As we welcome more families to Coquitlam, the new addition at Dr. Charles Best Secondary will ensure students have the learning environments they need to succeed. I am thrilled to see a project like this in our community,” added Coquitlam-Maillardville MLA Jennifer Blatherwick in the news release.
Meanwhile, the Tri-City News asked Ma about the status of the Hazel Trembath Elementary rebuilding in Port Coquitlam following the arson attack in October 2023.
Ma said her ministry is talking with SD43 officials about the new school; Cecchini later told the Tri-City News that SD43’s business plan includes pre-fab components at the new Hazel Trembath Elementary.
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