Province announces $86.5-million investment to replace Montgomery Middle School

Coquitlam students will be walking into a completely different Montgomery Middle School by 2028.

The province announced an $86.5-million investment to replace for the old school on Thursday, Aug. 1, complete with 600 student spaces, and a neighbourhood learning centre offering Indigenous programming.

“The seismic replacement of Montgomery Middle school will provide safe, modern classroom spaces for students, furthering the School District 43 Board of Education’s goal to provide world-class learning facilities for the communities we serve,” said Michael Thomas, chair of the Coquitlam School Board. “We are also pleased that the building will be built with environmental considerations at the forefront.”

The school will be designed to produce significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions, in line with the province’s CleanBC emissions-reduction goals, stated a release from the Ministry of Education.

Montgomery Middle School is the most recent Tri-Cities school to have a replacement and expansion announced.

Other local work included the creation of 775 seismically safe seats at Irvine Elementary and Moody Elementary, the recently completed Coast Salish Elementary, adding 430 new student spaces, and a prefabricated expansion to Scott Creek Middle school, adding another 250 seats as early as fall 2024.

The province touts it has created 2,600 new student seats and 1,375 seismically safe seats for the Coquitlam School District since it approved a $416 million investment seven years ago.

“Our government is committed to building, expanding and upgrading schools throughout B.C. to ensure all students are learning in safe, supportive environments,” said Minister of Education and Child Care Rachna Singh. “This replacement school will provide students in Coquitlam a safer, new school that will benefit this community for years to come.”

B.C.’s NDP government has approved $4.9 billion for new and improved schools, and land purchases for schools since 2017, resulting in more than 35,000 new student spaces and more than 35,000 seismically safe seats across the province, the news release added.

Its most recent 2024 budget includes $3.75 billion for school capital projects over the next three years, including new and expanded schools, seismic upgrades and replacements, and more land purchases for schools.