While many kids are heading back to school today, the students of St. Mary’s Catholic School in Collingwood will have to wait another week, and won’t be going back to their building for about a month.
In a letter sent to families on Aug. 30, the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board director of education Francis Bagley confirmed that mould remediation work being completed on 15 classrooms in the school by environmental engineering firm Pinchin Ltd. is not finished yet, and therefore all students would be instead starting the school year on Sept. 11 and in different buildings. Junior kindergarten to Grade 2 students will be temporarily relocated to New Life Church, while students in Grades 3 to 8 would be relocated to Our Lady of the Bay (OLB) Catholic High School.
The board is aiming to have students back in the St. Mary's building by Oct. 2.
“I want to start by taking an opportunity to apologize to the St. Mary’s community – this is not how any of us imagined that we would be starting off this school year,” Bagley said in her letter. “We know how important this time of year is for our students, staff and families, and the position that we currently find ourselves in is certainly not ideal.”
“Please know that our first priority continues to be the health and safety of our students and staff,” she wrote.
According to a timeline provided to CollingwoodToday by the board, Pinchin Ltd. completed their first assessment of the building in January, taking both air and physical samples in four classrooms. At that time, air samples returned with acceptable levels, while physical samples came back showing remediation work was required. That work was completed in the spring.
The board says additional staff concerns were then brought forward through a survey in June, which resulted in further investigation. Pinchin Ltd. was brought back in July to inspect all classrooms. Moisture readings in July indicated potential conditions for mould growth.
Remediation was then scheduled for all classrooms and all other areas of the school, which started in August.
To aid in the transition, the Catholic board will be bringing in additional support staff to assist at New Life Church and OLB. The board says interactions between St. Mary’s students and OLB students will be limited because of a different schedule for start/end times, class transitions, lunch and recess at different times while designating separate washrooms and cafeteria spaces for St. Mary’s students.
“We will be essentially running as two independent and separate schools within one building,” notes the board.
The board also noted that moving to virtual learning was considered, however the board ultimately decided against it due to feedback from families.
“We appreciate how patient and understanding the school community has been as we work through the logistics of relocating and complete repair and maintenance work at the school,” said the Catholic board’s communications manager Pauline Stevenson in an email to CollingwoodToday. “We are also incredibly grateful for the support of New Life Church and Our Lady of the Bay Catholic School for working with us to accommodate students in their buildings until the end of the month.”
A school relocation information session will be taking place for St. Mary’s families on Sept. 6 at 6 p.m. at Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School.
