Weather won’t stop the Taylor/Benson school from opening

           

By Shaun Garrity

Despite losing 13 work days to excessive rain over the summer, builders of the new Taylor/Benson school are still on schedule for opening in September 2014

WINCON construction is the company handling building operations for the Greater Essex County District School Board. Mike Schincariol, project manager for WINCON said this marks the seventh school they have built for the board in the past 10 years.

“Even with the lost three weeks we’re still maintaining fairly close to the original schedule, it’s going pretty well,” said Schincariol.

By next year the J.E. Benson and Dr. H.D. Taylor schools will become one learning establishment on the Taylor site.

Scott Scantlebury, public relations officer with the GECDSB, said repairing the two schools would have cost 35 per cent more than what it is costing to build a new school.

“That, of course, is a drain on board resources and we don’t get funded well for maintenance of buildings,” said Scantlebury.

Wendy Mellanby, a retired teacher who taught at Benson for 17 years, said a new school was promised years ago. She said there was a ground-breaking ceremony a few years ago, but nothing happened after that.

“Benson has been falling apart and it will be wonderful for the children to have a brand new school,” said Mellanby.

Benson school was built in 1915 and cost $75,000 to construct. The three-storey building has been a focal point of its west-side neighborhood. At one time it even had a tennis court on the roof-top. During the 1950s the student base became too large, so Bridgeview (Taylor) was built to accommodate the students. In 1956 Bridgeview was renamed Dr. H.D Taylor, for the first black physician to practice in Windsor. Principal Debra Laforet said there are 254 students currently enrolled at Taylor. Benson is also facing enrolment concerns with only 340 students in a building that once held 1200.

“Enrolment is low at both that school (Taylor) and Benson,” said Lynn Cornby, administrative assistant for superintendent of education.

She said the board has had funding for the new school for several years. Scantlebury confirmed that the board received money in 2007 and was approved to start the process of constructing a new school in the city’s west-end.

The new school is yet to be named, but Scantlebury said the board is encouraging the public to share its ideas.

“We would like people to express what they think the school means to the community and from that, we can develop a name and identity for the new school,” said Scantlebury.