The North Vancouver School District has put building a new elementary school on former Cloverley school site at the top of its priority list.
The board of education approved a capital plan that included a new Cloverley school at the top of the list at a public board meeting in June.
The plan to build a new school on the old site is a significant change from the school district’s plans only a year ago, when a new school in Lower Lonsdale – possibly in a highrise building – was on top of the priority list and the Cloverley site was being rejected by school district staff as too far away from expected population growth.
A school in Lower Lonsdale will probably still be needed – just not as soon, provided the ministry of education gives the go-ahead to build on the Cloverley site first, school district staff told the board at the meeting.
Plans were changed after new housing developments planned in Moodyville, Lynn Creek and Seylynn areas pointed to growing enrolment in the area near the site at the corner of Cloverley Street and Hendry Avenue.
The Cloverley land also already belongs to the school district, so wouldn’t require the province to find and pay for a site or go through a possibly lengthy redevelopment process.
The North Vancouver School District will now put forward a request to the Ministry of Education to build a “dual track” elementary school on the land with a capacity of 535 students, including French immersion. The estimated cost of the school is $21.6 million. The school district is hoping to have the project approved and built within four years.
Pressure has been mounting on the school district to get moving on plans for a new elementary school in the area as nearby schools including Ridgeway, Queensbury and Brooksbank are already overcrowded. Ridgeway in particular is currently operating at 125 per cent of capacity, with a number of portables on the site. School district planners project enrolment at the school could hit almost 170 per cent of capacity within 10 years.
Queen Mary is also operating over capacity and is projected to reach an enrolment of more than 130 per cent within a decade.
NVSD Supt. Mark Pearmain told trustees that if the school district is approved for a new Cloverley school, it would likely trigger changes to catchment areas that would relieve some of the pressure on existing schools.
Pearmain said there may still be a need for a school in Lower Lonsdale, but that may be pushed seven to 10 years into the future.
Just last year, City of North Vancouver council told school district planners not to count on the municipality to provide free or low-cost land for a school site in Lower Lonsdale. “We are not the Ministry of Education and we are not in the business of providing sites for schools,” Coun. Craig Keating noted at the time.
Aside from accommodating Ridgeway and Queen Mary students during recent rebuilds, Cloverley has been closed as a public school since 1982. Tenants over the past 35 years have included the publicly funded parent-participation Windsor House school, francophone school Ecole André-Piolat, dance academy Pro Arte and the YMCA.
The school district considered residential development on the Cloverley site in 2014, eventually commissioning a report that suggested a four-storey apartment and about 50 townhouses. However, no proposal was ever formally submitted to the city.
School district chair Christie Sacré said building on the Cloverley site presents a way to address an immediate need for a new school.
Trustee Megan Higgins said she was also pleased to see the plan come forward. “From my perspective it’s urgent,” she said.
Jim Mackenzie, director of facilities and capital planning with the school district, said a number of schools in the western part of the school district where population growth is expected are already nearing capacity.
Next in line on the school district’s wish list in the next two to four years are an expansion of Carson Graham high school by 250 students at a projected cost of about $13.6 million and an expansion of Lynn Valley elementary by 100 students at a cost of about $4.4 million.
Building replacement schools for Queensbury, Larson and Ross Road elementaries with capacities of about 535 students each and projected costs of between $20.7 million and $22.6 million are also on the North Vancouver School District’s wish list for the next two to four years, as is a seismic upgrade for Mountainside alternate school at a projected cost of $23.6 million.
Other projects on the wish list for further into the future include expansions of Westview, Queen Mary and Highlands elementary schools and replacements of Brooksbank and Lynnmour plus a single school to replace the combined populations of Seymour Heights and Blueridge.
