Elder Lolly Good of the Snuneymuwx First Nation leads a group of students in an opening song at Cilaire Elementary. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

back in class

Sizable seismic upgrades completed at Cilaire Elementary

Nov 27, 2022 | 5:55 AM

NANAIMO — After being closed for a full school year, full seismic upgrades at Nanaimo’s Cilaire Elementary School are complete.

During a Friday, Nov. 25 ceremony, members of the school board and other dignitararies were on hand for an official grand re-opening ceremony.

SD68 board chair Greg Keller said the upgrades went beyond seismic work, thanks to an $11 million provincial government grant.

“Also included was a number of other improvements like painting, HVAC, inclusive washrooms, upgraded Wi-Fi, an elevator, and replacement of water lines.”

Nearly $19 million in funding was announced in June 2020 for work at both Cilaire and Pleasant Valley Elementary School.

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“The vast majority of our schools require seismic upgrades, and we’re very pleased to be able to be here today to announce that work completion at Cilaire,” Keller added.

Moving students over to the old Woodlands Secondary School site while Cilaire was being upgraded benefited both buildings, Keller noted.

“It’s quite a significant project to do a seismic upgrade and it’s very disruptive, so being able to move the students and staff to the other facility for that year’s duration really did provide opportunities to also do all the sort of synergistic projects that we did at the same time, and if we didn’t do that, it would have been much more expensive to the school as a whole.”

Cilaire Elementary’s gym was stripped back to its foundations so upgrades such as shear walls of plywood could be added, as well as reinforcement of the concrete foundation below the change rooms. (Supplied/Mark Walsh)

About $1.5 million of the $11 million went to renovate Woodlands to help accommodate the Cilaire students during the renovations.

The former Woodlands Secondary School site houses the district’s Learning Alternatives program.

Keller said the upgrades to Cilaire were completed on time and under budget.

“The majority of schools in Nanaimo and Ladysmith are rated H1, which is the highest seismic safety risk rating a building can possess,” said Keller. “We hope to continue addressing safe schools with the government’s recently announced $3.1 billion allocated for school capital projects over the next three years.”

Executive Director of Planning and Operations Pete Sabo said students can’t see much of the work completed at Cilaire, as a lot of it was done underground or covered by walls.

This includes reinforcing concrete pads under the school, buttressing the rear wall of the gym, and adding rebar and concrete reinforcement.

“The upgrade was done from the interior, not the exterior, and we improved all of the connections and the ceiling and floor, and the walls to improve the structure… there’s a significant amount of foundation work that you cannot see, where all those loads are designed to go into the basement,” Sabo said.

The board said they have around 30 other schools in the district in need of seismic upgrades, with Nanaimo District Secondary School next on their priority list.

Seismically proofing Cilaire Elementary isn’t the only notable project at the school. An inclusive playground for Cilaire students is expected next year.

Concrete buttresses were added to the outside of the walls of the gym to reinforce weaker sections of the building. (Supplied/Mark Walsh)

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow