While the last students attending the new École secondaire des Navigateurs in Saint-Zotique start their new school year on Friday, September 1, the construction site is not yet complete. The Centre de services scolaires des Trois-Lacs estimates that the work will be completed by the end of September. 

On Wednesday, the first students discovered the new school as they started their new school year. 

By e-mail, Alexandra Desrochers, Coordinator of the General Secretariat and Communications Department, explained that "everything was in place to welcome them. Some work is still in progress and will be completed by the end of September. There remains, for example, a gymnasium, the auditorium and a few other premises to be delivered. It is important to note, however, that everything is in place to offer services to our students, and that this has no impact on them," she writes. 

She goes on to add that "this kind of situation is quite normal in a project of this magnitude. We are accustomed to having to put measures in place to allow cohabitation between students and workers", she concludes. 

According to Mayor Yvon Chiasson, workers are pulling out all the stops, working day and night to complete the site as quickly as possible.

A source tells Néomédia that two classrooms remain to be painted and that the basketball and soccer fields have been completed and fenced in. They will be installed near the refrigerated ice rink. Grass still needs to be sown in this area to complete the landscaping. 

No parking 

On Tuesday August 29, with the start of the new school year bringing its share of traffic to the area, the municipal council adopted a notice of motion concerning parking in the area of the new school. 

"We wish to prohibit parking on both sides of the street on 26th Avenue, 20th Street and Parc des Quatre-Saisons, so as not to further inconvenience residents in this area. The aim is to prevent Secondary 4 and 5 students driving to school from parking in these areas. In theory, they should be taking the school bus to school," explained Mayor Yvon Chiasson.