Construction timing for a badly needed and fully funded North-East Oakville high school is in question, after the Halton District School Board scuttled plans to build on a site near the northeast corner of Neyagawa and Dundas.
Concerns about the AM radio tower array located to the west of the site have convinced the board to look for an alternative high school location.
A media release issued by the board says significant concerns about the impact of emitted radio waves from the tower convinced trustees to commission a study to look at the issue.
“The report concluded that the proposed high school is outside the area of direct potential health impacts as defined by federal regulations, but there are potential impacts to end-users resulting from interference generated from the AM radio towers waves on the second and third storey of the proposed school,” says the release.
“The Board’s consultant identified potential impacts to electronic devices, which included lifesaving and personal medical devices; operational school equipment for learning and communications; and personal electrical devices.”
It adds that the report indicated neither building materials or design solutions could effectively attenuate the impacts.
Trustees have directed board staff to work with the town to identify alternative site for a northeast Oakville high school.
“We will continue to work diligently toward a solution as the need for a secondary school in North Oakville is an uppermost priority,” said Stuart Miller, the board’s director of education.
“This new high school was planned to open in the 2024-2025 school year and therefore we need to identify a new site and begin construction as soon as possible.”
School board officials were before Oakville council in January to present plans for the $33.6 school, intended to serve about 1,200 students.
At that time, they told councillors that the rapidly-growing North Oakville area already has 734 high school students travelling south of Dundas Street to attend class.
"While I understand the community is probably upset to hear about the need for an alternative site for the new high school for northeast Oakville, we have to put the health and safety of the students first and because of the information from the report regarding the impact of the AM towers that is exactly what we are doing," said Kelly Amos, Oakville trustee for Wards 5 and 7.
"Based upon the recommendation of the consultant we have started immediately to work with the Town of Oakville to find another site as soon as possible, to minimize a possible delay in opening this much needed high school."
NE #1 Oakville High School Virtual Meeting - Dec. 2020
