Long-range planners for the North Vancouver school district anticipate the number of kids enrolled at North Vancouver schools will grow by about 1,000 students over the next decade.
If enrolment trends play out as expected, that will mean just around 16,700 students will attend North Vancouver public schools by 2027, compared to just more than 15,700 students today, pushing the current schools close to capacity.
But that growth likely won’t happen evenly throughout the district, authors of a 2017 long-range facilities plan warn.
Families who move to North Vancouver are more likely to move into the central areas of community, making the need for a new elementary school in Lower Lonsdale more acute.
That project is at the top of the school district’s capital project priority list – after rebuilds of Argyle secondary, currently in the design phase, and Handsworth, which has been submitted to the ministry of education for approval.
So far, the school district is still in the very early stages of site selection for a new Lower Lonsdale school. The old Cloverley school site, a school district-owned parcel on Cloverley Street between Hendry and Kennard avenues below East Keith Road, a city-owned piece of land on Alder Street between St. Patricks and St. Davids avenues in Moodyville and a more urban space in a new highrise have all been suggested as possible locations. “Everything’s on the table at this point,” said Deneka Michaud, spokeswoman for the school district.
“We would like to have it done in five years. I would say that’s optimistic.”
The ministry of education would have to pay for both land and building costs of a new school.
In 10 years’ time, it’s also likely Carson Graham secondary – rebuilt in 2012 at a cost of $38 million – will be again over-capacity and have to be expanded.
That’s because when the ministry of education funds new schools, they do so based on current enrolment, said Michaud.
The long-range facilities plan also points to a possible need in the future to change some elementary school catchment areas in the central and western areas, such as the boundary between Capilano and Norgate schools, which currently runs along Marine Drive, a major thoroughfare. Capilano, which runs an International Baccalaureate program at its Pemberton Heights location, currently operates at 89 per cent capacity, with all but a few of its students coming from within the catchment area.
Norgate school, which operates as a community school and includes the Squamish Nation’s Capilano reserve lands, currently operates at 45 per cent capacity (or 64 per cent capacity if classrooms being used for other programs are factored in).
It will be the opposite scenario at the eastern side of the school district, however, where the student population is smaller.
It’s likely the status quo won’t change in the next decade, but farther out, potential plans could include closing Blueridge elementary and combining the student population into one expanded new Seymour Heights school.
Closing unused parts of Sherwood Park, Cove Cliff and Dorothy Lynas elementary could also be considered in the future, according to the long-range report. The plan also points to a possible closure of Seycove secondary (currently operating at 70 per cent capacity) in the long-term with a consolidation of the secondary school population at an expanded Windsor school (operating now at 82 percent capacity) in the eastern part of North Vancouver.
Michaud said more study, review and public consultation would have to happen before any significant changes are considered for either the medium or long term. Many of the possible plans in the long-range report by Matrix Planning Associates are still theoretical at this point, she added.
More immediately, it’s possible the school district will have to come up with more classrooms in September in response to a deal reached between teachers and the province as a result of the Supreme Court of Canada ruling on class size and composition.
“We’re still working through that in terms of what it’ll look like,” said Michaud. “It will vary by school. There will certainly be new classrooms that will be needed.”
In some cases the need for classroom space may involve ousting other programs or “reclaiming” space like a second classroom, said Michaud. In cases of larger classrooms, “we could actually just put up walls,” said Michaud, turning two large classrooms into three smaller ones, for instance.
“There’s also the possibility of portables,” she said.
