Elementary school will not reopen on time

Students at Elm Street Elementary School in Summerside will have to stay in their temporary classrooms a little longer.

The school building will not be ready after the Christmas holidays as first hoped.

School Board officials said the cleaning and renovations will take another few months to complete.

"Once we have a totally clean building we need to have a couple of weeks for the final air quality testing. We're looking somewhere toward the end of January or mid February before we're in a position to make a decision on a return to school," said Dale Sabean, superintendent of the Western School Board. "That's presuming that everything goes according to schedule."

Sabean noted recent air quality tests came back at acceptable levels.

The school was built in 1960 and has about 450 students from kindergarden to grade six.

He said students and staff are anxious to get back to the school and that parents are being notified now of the plans.