Moncton High teachers' letter taken seriously

Public health officials, WorkSafeNB staff and an air quality expert have descended on Moncton High School after teachers complained the 75-year-old building is causing them health problems.

A group of teachers sent a letter to Karen Branscombe, the District 2 superintendent, this week saying they want to move out of the building because it's making them sick.

Branscombe confirmed the district has received the teachers' letter and they are taking their concerns seriously.

The superintendent will be meeting with the teachers and the deputy minister of education next week to discuss the school.

Branscombe, however, said the district's experts have advised her the downtown school is still safe despite the concerns of the teachers.

"We have a lot of experts that are working at Moncton High School. So we rely on all these experts to advise us on when a building, in any case, would be deemed unsafe to be in," Branscombe said.

"We certainly are getting positive reports continually back from the experts. So we have to go with the facts and the evidence right now certainly keeps that building open."

Branscombe said meetings will be held next week with the staff at Moncton High School.

The school re-opened on Tuesday after being closed for six days to do repairs to corroding steel beams.

Two other areas are still closed to staff and students while repairs continue.

Last week's repairs cost the provincial government $50,000.

She said the district and the province have spent the last 18 months addressing issues raised by the teachers at Moncton High.

An Ontario-based architecture firm is writing a report on the future of the school.

It is estimated to cost $48 million to bring the school up to proper building codes, which is likely double the cost of building a new school.

The Moncton school was opened in 1935.