Candidate's Facebook post about Moncton school incenses parents

Parents at Hillcrest School are upset over how they found out the province is considering one site for a new west end school in Moncton.

Earlier this year, Premier Brian Gallant announced Moncton will get a new kindergarten to Grade 8 school to replace both Hillcrest and Bessborough schools. 

On Friday, Cathy Rogers, the Liberal running for re-election in Moncton South, took to Facebook to say "initial planning has begun to build a new school on the current Bessborough property."

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Moira Murphy, the Progressive Conservative candidate in Moncton South, has campaigned on renovating and expanding Bessborough School. Murphy questioned the timing of Rogers's statement in a video Murphy posted to her Facebook page. 

Andy Scott, whose children attend Hillcrest and who is president of the Hillcrest Home and School Association, said he felt ambushed by the Rogers post.

"Right or wrong, we were expecting to hear this announcement as part of a group," Scott told Information Morning Moncton​.

"Another town hall or something, where the [district education council] and the government would come together and tell us what's going on."

Replacing decades-old schools

The new building would replace Hillcrest School and Bessborough School, both built in the 1950s.

In February, the province said it had set aside $1.5 million to plan the new school. But there had been no definitive word on where in the city's west end it would be constructed. 

A planning study looking at potential sites was expected to be completed by next March.

Province won't comment

CBC tried to verify Rogers's statement with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

Jeremy Trevors, a spokesperson for the department, said "the provincial government typically does not comment on media stories regarding campaign-related announcements."

Harry Doyle, chair of the District Education Council and Gregg Ingersoll, superintendent of the Anglophone East School District, both said they had not received any information from the province about the planned location.

'Feels like an ambush'

Scott said it was heavily implied there were other locations that were being looked at to implement a new school.

Options being discussed included the current Bessborough property. 

In March, Romeo Goguen, owner of Mapoma in Moncton, proposed his land along the north edge of Centennial Park, across the street from the CN Sportplex, a large recreational facility in the west end.

"Why all of a sudden is it only Bessborough, 17 days before the election, and why is it you [are] making this announcement by yourself?" Scott said.

Scott said it should be about two school communities coming together with plans for an improved school, but instead Rogers made an announcement as a matter of "convenience."

"It feels more like an ambush … we were told one thing that we were going to get this information in a certain way and then it comes out as a campaign issue," Scott said.

"I just wish what we had understood to be the process actually took place as the process."

Parents of Hillcrest students were polled about a possible merger with Bessborough prior to the decision to close the school.

Only about 59 per cent responded to the poll and of those, 37 per cent were in favour of joining Bessborough and 38 per cent were not. The other 25 per cent were undecided.

'Cautiously optimistic' 

Tyson Milner, who co-chairs the new Bessborough School parents committee and has previously run for the provincial Liberals, agrees the district education council should've come together with the minister of education and met with the parent groups.

"I think it's a progress report in that, 'Hey we're pretty sure we can make that fit," he said of Rogers's post. "We think we can make it work. This'll be the new site."

In the meantime, Milner was remaining cautiously optimistic about the new school.

Until the district education council and the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure confirm the site, "it's not news to me that they're planning it," he said, "because they have to go through the planning process to say, 'Hey will it fit? Can it meet the current education standards? Will everything be great here?"