New Vernon Secondary School a hit with students, teachers, and school district personnel By Stuart Kamstra, Capital Projects Supervisor, School District No. 22
School District No. 22 had waited patiently for the replacement Vernon Secondary School (VSS) project to have the funding approved by the Ministry. Over 12 years of work into feasibility studies, budgets, and design concepts finally paid off and the LEED Gold project moved to the construction phase in late 2010. It was well worth the wait. The new school – the largest in the district – the “Pride on the Hill” as displayed on the school’s exterior sign, has been described as the flagship of the district. Our district maintenance manager was a key performer who ensured that 34
Ops Talk • Fall 2013
our district standards were met and matched our strategic and operational plans. Our district standards were created from many years of experience operating our school facilities, and take into consideration our labour force skill-set, methods of construction, maintenancefriendly products, flexibility, and costeffectiveness. Standards for the project were set initially at the design stage, and as construction progressed we had to reinforce these practices as they were not fully embraced at times. Keeping all parties focused on the big picture of longterm maintenance and meeting our dis-
trict standards was a big challenge that we had to meet on the project. The project scope included construction of a brand-new replacement secondary school on the existing school property adjacent to the current school, which remained active until the new school was ready to be occupied. Demolition of the original school was included in the contract works; it was completed after the new school was occupied and before the teachers’ parking, geothermal field and play fields could be finished. The new Vernon Secondary is a threestorey, 10,358-square-metre school that
