Peter Black
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
Jan. 31, 2024
The opening of the new Central Québec School Board (CQSB) school on the South Shore has been postponed to September.
The plan had been to transfer students now attending St. Vincent Elementary in Sainte-Foy to the school now under construction, named New Liverpool Elementary, after the March break. St. Vincent was temporarily renamed New Liverpool in September.
The board informed teachers, staff and students’ families of the decision before the Christmas break, Stephen Burke, chair of the CQSB council of commissioners, told the QCT.
Burke, fresh from inaugurating a $17.3-million improvement project at the board’s school in Chibougamau, said, “Technical issues and tardiness in receiving essential elements of the heating system” of the new school forced the delay.
In September 2023, some 150 former St. Vincent students living in Quebec City found themselves transferred to other schools in the area, the largest share going to Everest Elementary.
That left about 300 students at the former St. Vincent who are destined to attend the new school in the Saint-Romuald sector of Lévis. The new building, budgeted at around $30 million, is set on the site of a former religious centre and incorporates a pyramid-shaped structure that will be the school’s gym.
The opening of New Liverpool and the closing of St. Vincent are part of the board’s plan to consolidate its three high schools in the region – Quebec High School, St. Patrick’s High School and the high school section of Dollard-des-Ormeaux School in Shannon – into a new facility to be built on the site of St. Vincent on Ave. Wolfe in Sainte-Foy.
Burke said, “The high school project is moving on according to schedule. We still are confident that it will be ready for the start of the 2027-2028 school year.”
On the website of the Société des Infrastructures du Québec, which manages large public sector construction projects in the province, the call for tenders for the new high school is slated for as early as July, with construction possibly starting this fall. The school is budgeted at up to $150 million.
Board officials say the St. Vincent building needs to be “disassembled,” rather than outright demolished, due to the presence of asbestos in the structure. That work could start in late June, once school is out for the very last time.
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New Liverpool Elementary School will open for classes in September.
Image from CQSB