Victoria High School students are spending their last few months at an alternative site as the $79.7-million seismic refit and expansion of their Fernwood school nears completion.
The student body relocated to the former S.J. Willis Education Centre three years ago to make way for an extensive renovation and expansion.
Students and staff are scheduled to move into the remade Vic High at the end of January, about four months later than planned due to factors like labour shortages and unexpected issues arising from the age of the school building, which dates to 1914.
A group of Grade 11 and 12 students — none of whom have ever had the chance to attend classes at the Fernwood campus — gathered Friday, at the end of the first week of classes, to talk about the future of Vic High.
Completion of the project, said Grade 12 student Aviva Isitt, has been a long time coming.
She said students were first told their temporary stay at the Topaz Avenue building would only be for two years. “I think we’re really excited to spend our last semester here.”
Rory Fleming, also in Grade 12, said moving to another school for only a few months before graduating and moving on will feel strange.
“This kind of feels like our school here,” she said of
S.J. Willis. “I think it’s going to feel kind of weird to have a new school, a new setup and not know where everything is right away.”
Grade 12 student Lucinda Booth said she is interested in Vic High’s history and is looking forward to graduating from the same campus as her two older siblings. “I got to go in there and look around when I was little,” she said.
The promise of additional science classrooms and other amenities adds to their anticipation, the students said.
They said people who live nearby are undoubtedly excited about the project being completed, as well.
Talia Tuzinde, who is in Grade 11, is happy that the Vic High project has included saving the school’s original facade and other features.
The students agreed it was a good decision to move ahead with a longer project that included retention of historical features, rather than tearing the school down and doing a full rebuild.
Despite attending Vic High at a replacement site, the students said that they have had a good experience as Vic High students.
“I’m so glad I’m here,” said Grade 11 student Molly Descantes, who is particularly excited by the fact that a version of an Indigenous-themed art piece she created will be engraved in the walkway in front of the school.
“There’s five canoes and each one represents a different nation on the Island,” said Molly, who is Métis.
S.J. Willis may be a substitute, Aviva said, but she loves the teachers “and it still feels like Vic High.”
“It’s still the community of Vic High.”
Vic High’s temporary home is known as the Topaz campus, and principal Aaron Parker said it has served the school well but is “busting at the seams.”
The Greater Victoria School District made sure that Vic High staples like a dance studio and hairdressing studio were in place at the S.J. Willis site to keep it like the original, he said, “but it is time to move.”
There will be about 860 students in a space meant for 800 when everyone settles in S.J. Willis over the next few weeks, Parker said, while the revamped Vic High will have room for 1,000.
Before the Vic High community moved in, the S.J. Willis building hadn’t been a full-fledged school since it closed as a junior high in 1983. It was renovated to become an alternative site for Vic High, and other school groups that will have to move there during future seismic work.
Vic High has the distinction of being the oldest high school west of Winnipeg and north of San Francisco. It dates to 1876, when it opened in a log building on the grounds of what is now Central Middle School.
It has been at its Fernwood location since 1914 — Parker pointed out that incoming Grade 9 students will form the 150th Vic High graduating class.
Greater Victoria School District superintendent Deb Whitten said she is eagerly awaiting Vic High’s reopening.
“It has been a very interesting experience with working on an older building, but I think the finished product will be fantastic.”
The school will include a neighbourhood learning centre that houses public services and child-care spaces.
The Fernwood construction area is still a sea of equipment and materials, but the finished product is taking shape, with the artificial-turf field already in place and much of the work on the facade completed.
Parker said once students and staff have settled in after the move, the larger community and school alumni will be invited in to see what has been done.
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