Coast schools are being searched for mould, cleared of asbestos, painted and fixed by School District 46 (SD46) maintenance crews this summer.
"The maintenance guys are doing a great job and they're working really hard," said SD46 manager of facilities Stewart Hercus.
Maintenance crews have been working since the start of the summer on projects at West Sechelt Elementary, Halfmoon Bay Elementary, Roberts Creek Elementary, Kinnikinnick Elementary, Pender Harbour Secondary, Elphinstone Secondary and the heritage school, which sits at the top of School Road in Gibsons.
In West Sechelt, Hercus said work was done to level the floor, rebuild a wall and install new drainage on an old section of the school building.
"What happened was when they added onto the school they added onto both ends, so both ends are new and the centre is old. The only problem was in the centre part, but it's all fixed now," Hercus said.
Some in the community were worried mould was the issue that necessitated the work in West Sechelt, but Hercus said that's not the case.
"There's absolutely no mould in there, and we've put in sump pumps to ensure that the drainage is good. I think they came on a maximum of maybe three or four minutes all of last year, which is nothing, and we have power ventilation in there as well. It's bone dry," Hercus said.
Last year West Sechelt Elementary did have some mould issues, but Hercus said the problem was fixed at that time.
"That all got remediated last year, and the guys came in and had it all cleared with the air quality tests," he said.
Inspections done last winter were the catalyst to work being done this summer.
"Last winter when I was doing maintenance, we had some envelope assessments done of our stucco buildings that fit within a certain era. Roberts Creek fell into that and there was some moisture in the walls," he said. "There's no mould, but there was some moisture in there. That's all being remediated."
In Roberts Creek, an exterior wall that was highlighted in the envelope assessment has been fixed, while in Halfmoon Bay, Hercus said there were a few walls that needed attention due to high moisture.
"We thought it would be worse than it was because we were reading like 17 per cent moisture in some places, and anything over 12 per cent you need to be concerned about because mould will apparently grow in anything over 12 per cent," he said. "So immediately we got the walls opened up to make sure they're OK, and they're repairing anything that looked bad."
Pender Harbour Secondary School is getting a new water purification system this week so when students return in the fall they will no longer have to drink bottled water. Currently the school is on well water, which cannot be consumed safely.
The school also got new flooring as crews took out old flooring that was a safety concern due to asbestos.
"In the backing of old flooring there is some asbestos, and the flooring was getting to the age where it could be a concern if it started to wear through in places. It's 30 years old. It's been there since the building was built, and with the traffic that it gets in the main hallways, we replaced it all," Hercus said.
One classroom at Elphinstone Secondary also had its floor replaced for the same reason.
Kinnikinnick Elementary and the Gibsons Heritage School both got painted to freshen up their appearances and crews will soon replace the windows that were broken by vandals at Madeira Park Elementary School in June.
"We deliberately haven't replaced the windows too soon just in case there was anyone else involved that we don't know about. So we're getting them replaced probably this week," Hercus noted.
Custodians are also hard at work right now, giving schools a deep clean before students return on Sept. 6.
