J.L. Ilsley High School safe despite parent concerns, says Halifax board
Students called for major renovations back in 2013
J.L. Ilsley High School may have some leaks and issues but a school board member who oversees the school maintains that it is safe and doesn't need replacing.
Concerned parents have been speaking out, with some calling for the construction of a new school.
"The school is safe," Sheryl Blumenthal-Harrison, the Halifax Regional School Board member for District 6, Clayton Park West — Spryfield, told CBC's Information Morning.
Blumenthal-Harrison said she has toured the building a few times and said the condition of the school is not as bad as the community is being told.
However, parents with kids at the school say that's not the case.
Rebecca DeCoste has a daughter in Grade 10 at J.L. Ilsley High School. She said there are pieces of cinder block falling in the school gym and buckets to catch water leaks in the gym during school events.
DeCoste said in 2013 students started a petition calling for major renovations. A year later it was announced that a roof repair and replacement project would take place.
The work began, but DeCoste said it was never finished and the problems with leaks persisted.
"So that's when you get concerned if last year's repair is failing this year, what's going to happen next year and the year after," she said.
J.L. Ilsley was closed for a week last winter after a bad ice storm caused several leaks in the building, but Blumenthal-Harrison said many other schools had similar closures.
She said the work is being done as funding comes in. She said the school has also been moved to the top of the capital repair list and awarded $1 million.
"That was specifically for roof replacement for the gym and the art wing, to have part of the paving done in the parking lot, which included drainage upgrades," she said.
There were also upgrades to the cafeteria. These projects are expected to be finished by the end of this school year.
Blumenthal-Harrison points out the building is only 45 years old and she said it is in good shape.
"Yes, it does need additional renovations and a lot of work, but the structure is more than feasible," she said and stresses the school is not on the list for replacement.
"The community never asked for a replacement."
Blumenthal-Harrison said suggests J.L. Ilsley High School can one day have the successful outcome that the renovated Dartmouth High School and Prince Andrew High School experienced.
"Those schools have turned into fabulous area schools," she said. "They weren't rebuilds, they weren't new schools, they were complete major overhauls."
As for concerned parents, Blumenthal-Harrison said, "there are no health concerns, 100 per cent."