Excavators and trucks moved gravel and dirt Wednesday afternoon as construction is underway for a new elementary school in North Vancouver’s Cloverley neighbourhood.
Local and provincial politicians as well as school district trustees went on a walking tour of the construction site Wednesday to announce the progress of the new Cloverley Elementary.
“We have incredible growth in terms of the number of families that are choosing to make North Shore home,” Bowinn Ma, minister of infrastructure and MLA for North Vancouver-Lonsdale, said after the tour.
“And with that growth comes additional needs. This school is part of our government’s continued commitment to investing in the infrastructure that communities need.”
The old Cloverley Elementary closed as a public school in 1982, sitting mostly empty over the following decades. The new school is expected to hold more than twice the capacity of the old school. The new Cloverley Elementary is being built on the eastern side of the former school site and will seat 585 students from kindergarten to Grade 7. The new school will also include a neighbourhood learning centre with 50 before-and after-school spaces and a 37-space childcare facility.
The province has provided $61 million for the school, with the North Vancouver School District contributing an additional $3 million. The childcare facility will cost $7.2 million, with the province funding $3.7 million and the City of North Vancouver contributing $3.5 million.
The new school aims to address overcrowding problems in the district, as nearby schools have seen large increases in enrolment over the last few years as more young families move into the area.
“With this new elementary school and child care centre, we’re building a brighter future – ensuring our children have the support they need to learn, grow and thrive close to home,” City of North Vancouver Mayor Linda Buchanan said in a provincial news release.
Since 2016, the government has approved more than $233 million to create 1,030 new student seats and 3,150 seismically safer seats in the North Vancouver School District, the province said in a news release.
Cloverley Elementary is expected to open by fall 2026.
Abby Luciano is the Indigenous and civic affairs reporter for the North Shore News. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative. [email protected]
