Time is ticking and prices are increasing as the Kamloops-Thompson School District hopes to get provincial support in its bid to buy land for the future Aberdeen Secondary School.

School trustees have asked the province for $7.5 million to buy their preferred site for the future Aberdeen Secondary School, located at 2390 Pacific Way in Kamloops.

Speaking on the NL Morning News, SD73 Board Chair, Heather Grieve, says the owner was holding the land for the district with a $6.1 million price tag, until the end of last year.

“The timeline has obviously passed and so the price tag has gone up,” Grieve said. “I mean, it is going to do that, and we’re really wanting to make sure that we can purchase that site and secure it for our future location of the Aberdeen Secondary School.”

The school district’s 2021-22 Capital Plan, dated June 17, 2020, had a funding request of $5.4 million, about $2.1 million lower than the current ask of the province.

Grieve says SD73 wrote to former Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside back on Apr. 11, 2022, telling her about the “one-time chance” they had to buy the Pacific Way plot of land. She says while the owner is still offering the land to the school district, she isn’t sure how long that will be the case.

“If it is not secured, we’re going to have to do some significant relooking at what would be a manageable site and whether there is one,” Grieve added, noting that could delay the project further.

“Obviously, there is concern because I think that there are always pressures on property owners and people who own the land that we are trying to purchase but also developers and things like that who want to get moving as well.”

School Board trustees were able to take their concerns directly to Education Minister, Rachna Singh, who was in town on Monday to announce the Anti-Racism Action Plan for K-12 students.

“We were able to express why that pressure is, why the site that we have identified is the ideal site for us, and what we really need from our ministry for support moving forward,” Grieve said.

Estimates from SD73 are that students in southwest Kamloops will need a secondary school in five years with current facilities anticipated to be at 146 per cent capacity

A new Aberdeen Secondary Secondary School was third on 2021-2022 Capital Plan, behind both Pineview Valley Elementary and Batchelor Heights Elementary. It climbed to second place in the 2022-23 Capital Plan, and is currently the top capital priority in the 2023-24 Capital Plan.

Speaking on the NL Morning News, Education Minister Rachna Singh said she understands the urgency of the situation that SD73 is in but noted that her Ministry gets hundreds of capital requests from the 60 school districts across the province.

“Every project that comes to the ministry, it is researched, and we do it according to the priority. Like, what needs to be prioritized,” Singh said.

“They have requested funding to purchase the site for the new secondary school and that request is being considered alongside as I said, a number of other requests that we have that have come forward.”

“I will continue and the Ministry will continue to work with the Kamloops school district and the board of education to identify areas of growth and to develop strategy to support the district as we move forward,” she added.

The 2021-2022 Capital Plan had a funding request of just under $75-million for the new Aberdeen Secondary School. While estimates were not included in subsequent capital plans, NL News understands that the school is estimated to cost around $100-million at this time.