Students from a high school closed urgently due to mold are urging the Montreal school service center (CSSDM) to speed up the reconstruction work on the building. Parents also deplore the inaction of the CSSDM, which has left them in the dark for years.
Posted at 1:28 a.m.
Updated at 5:00 a.m.
Gathered in front of the establishment in the Villeray district, which has been condemned for seven years, four young third-year secondary school students are surprised that despite the fact that it is boarded up, the school they could have attended is “enormous”.
“It’s magnificent!” exclaims Racha Boutafenouchet. For us, that’s paradise. »
But Racha Boutafenouchet has no illusions. “We will never come here,” she adds.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
Ada Gimeno Gabas, Racha Boutafenouchet, Romane Legeleux and Nayla Geroun are four students from the Roberval Academy who denounce the slowness of the CSSDM in renovating their school.
It is indeed unlikely that within the next two years, the work to renovate this school will be completed. We had announced the end of the work for 2023, then 2024…
Over the years, the Roberval Academy has become one of those almost iconic schools due to their dilapidation. Seven years ago, her students had to leave her after mold was discovered.
They have since been in a “transitional” school, located in Georges-Vanier secondary school, in Villeray.
Roberval Academy student council member Ada Gimeno Gabas says she is “angry” that nothing is moving forward after all these years. With other students, she decided to sign a petition to ask the CSSDM to “do what is necessary to resume work in the old building […] and finalize them as soon as possible.
Although signed by 350 young people, the petition achieved nothing, underlines the teenager. Hence the idea of alerting the media.
Rooms without windows
After three years spent in these premises, which were supposed to be temporary, the four students from the Roberval Academy came out with a list when they were asked what problems they saw in these premises.
The main thing: several premises do not have windows.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
The inaction of the CSSDM is singled out.
“The classes are small, dull. They are not conducive to learning,” points out Racha Boutafenouchet. The science premises are “minimalist” and lack equipment, they say. A cramped corridor is nicknamed “death row” by students.
Due to the lack of a gymnasium, students usually walk to the Jean-Rougeau sports center, located not far from the high school. But this year, it is under renovation. Physical education must be done outside.
It’s not just the students who are exasperated. A school reconstruction committee was set up last month. Around twenty parents participate. “Absolutely nothing is happening,” says Annie-Claude Thériault, spokesperson for the group, which has the approval of the governing board of the Roberval Academy.
She deplores that the response from the CSSDM, when asked to account, is always the same, “very formal”. “We are told that we are priorities and that we are waiting for budgets,” says Mme Thériault.
“We are always told the same thing”
How much is this budget now? What is the timetable for the start of work?
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
The boarded up windows of the Roberval Academy, urgently closed due to mold.
The Montreal School Service Center (CSSDM) did not respond to these questions. “We meet with the governing board in mid-November. We prefer to inform the parents first,” writes Alain Perron, spokesperson for the CSSDM.
You must therefore rely on the latest information published on the service center’s website. The last “ideal chronology”, which dates from 2021, speaks of a “hoped-for return” to school next year.
According to the governing board, in 2019, it was estimated that the work would cost 43 million, but in March 2023, the project would have been put on hold due to cost overruns.
I pass by it every day. It’s terrible, the way it looks, and I feel like the longer they wait, the less the building can be saved.
Annie-Claude Thériault, spokesperson for a group for the reconstruction of the school
The “good news” in all this: the last I heard, the plan was to rehabilitate the heritage building, and not to demolish it.
But plans may have changed, adds Mme Thériault. “It’s like a tape, we’re always told the same thing. »
Over the years, she said, the budget has doubled, and the CSSDM says it is now waiting for additional funding from Quebec.
As for the transitional school, “we accept because it’s temporary,” says Annie-Claude Thériault with derision. “In 2024, in Quebec, we must not be satisfied with having walls,” she continues.
The instigators of the petition say they are taking actions “for future generations”. They claim that they have the support of the teachers, but that it is their own initiative.
While elementary school children will soon choose their future secondary school, students wonder if some might be tempted to choose a private school with “ergonomic premises, arena, swimming pool, etc..” » rather than a school they like, but a “neglected” school.
