Malcolmson said while the new classrooms will be prefabricated, they will still differ from a portable classroom. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie

With the school year now underway, one Nanaimo high school has announced it is expanding.

As Nanaimo continues to grow, the government of B.C. is adding six new prefabricated classrooms to Wellington Secondary School which will add 150 new seats to the school.

CHLY attended the announcement outside Wellington Secondary on Friday, August 30.

MLA for Nanaimo, Sheila Malcolmson, spoke at the announcement saying she heard from residents about the need for more seats in schools in Nanaimo. Increasing the amount of seats in school, she said is a big focus of the B.C. government.

“We've been focused, in a historic way as a government, about investing in children, families, and the education system. We had a lot of ground to make up, and the level of investment has been historic and has been necessary,” Malcolmson said. “We want to support students now and into the future, and that means investing in the education system.”

She said the $9 million project will add six prefabricated classrooms. She said this would allow the construction time to be 50 per cent faster than normal.

“With Nanaimo's extraordinary population growth and the very credible work that the school district has done to model based on our extraordinary pace of building construction, let alone new people, newcomers coming into Nanaimo, this is a School that needs more investment,” Malcolmson said.

Malcolmson said since September 2017, the B.C. government has approved more than $5 billion for new schools and improvements to existing ones, resulting in approximately 36,000 new student spaces and more than 38,000 seismically safe seats across the province.

“We are a government that invests in people, and we are also a team that recognizes there is much more for us to do, so with gratitude for the partnerships that made this day possible, and with just real excitement to be starting off the school year with some good news for students here at Wellington,” Malcolmson said.

Malcolmson said while the new classrooms will be prefabricated, they will still differ from a portable classroom.

“They can be designed to be two stories,” Malcolmson said. “They can be designed to have bathrooms, hallways, and lockers. It really is a kind of a mini-school, but I also understand that there are building code restrictions which don't allow a direct attachment.”

Mark Walsh, Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District Secretary-Treasurer said there are four potential locations for the expansion. He said while the classrooms will be separate from the school, they will work on making sure it is still connected to the school community.

“For instance, we've got a band room for many, many years that is a bit separate [from the school building], but it's still integrated into our community in a positive way. So that's what we'll be working on,” Walsh said.

Walsh said these 150 new seats are greatly needed for the school district as every school excluding the ones in Ladysmith and Cedar, are above capacity.

“So what we're looking at doing is potentially some students are going to end up moving from [Dover Bay Secondary School] from this catchment, and then we're going to actually be able to potentially look at alleviating some of [Nanaimo District Secondary School] capacity by moving some of those students here as well, subject to consultation, of course,” Walsh said.

The new classrooms are expected to be ready by winter 2026.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.