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Parents whose kids attend school in the central city area of North Vancouver say they’re still dealing with overcrowded schools five years after the school district put a new elementary school at the top of its priority list and three years after the province promised money for a new school had been set aside.
“Basically, it doesn’t seem like anything has really moved forward on it,” said parent Melissa McConchie, whose son is finishing Grade 7 at Ridgeway Elementary and whose older daughter also attended the school.
So far, word from the province on a new school for the area has been “stay tuned.”
Since 2018, plans to build a new elementary school on the site of the long-closed Cloverley Elementary has topped the wish list for the North Vancouver School District. A new school is needed to take pressure off nearby schools which have been dealing with large increases in enrolment over the past five years as young families move into the area.
In the spring of 2020, a new Cloverley Elementary was one of only seven new schools given approval in principle by the province and earmarked for further review – seen as a positive sign. But official approvals to build a school – and a budget to go with it – have yet to materialize.
Huge increases in construction costs which have more than doubled the estimated price of a new school haven’t helped.
Originally earmarked as a $21.6 million project five years ago, the estimated cost to build the new 585-seat school are now “well over $60 million” said North Vancouver Lonsdale MLA Bowinn Ma, who remains nonetheless optimistic a funding announcement is coming soon.
Meanwhile, schools in the lower and central areas of North Vancouver have continued to face crowding.
Ridgeway Elementary is one of the schools which has borne the brunt of increased enrolment in the school district.
Enrolment at the school has jumped from about 326 students 10 years ago to 673 students today.
Originally built around 1910, Ridgeway underwent a heritage rebuild in 2011, ending up with a capacity of 485 students. Several years ago, a large modular building that had previously been sitting empty at the former Cloverley school site was moved to the Ridgeway school grounds, bumping the capacity to 662 students. “That was when my son was in Grade 2,” said McConchie. “We were told it was temporary.”
Although the modular building and additional portables at the school have provided classroom space, it doesn’t address issues like the pressures on gym time with such a large student population, she added.
According to the school district, other schools in the area are also at or near capacity. There are also 31 portables providing additional classroom space in the school district.
McConchie said she doesn’t understand why there appears to be such a lack of co-ordination between the demographic changes brought about by growth and added density in the city and the province and the school district’s ability to plan for schools.
Ma said she understands parents’ frustrations.
But government had to prioritize seismic upgrades, she said – three of which have been finished in North Vancouver in the last year and a half.
Ma said the scale of cost escalation on the Cloverley project has meant the plans had to go through an additional review. The province also requested a “mass timber option” be included in potential plans.
That work is still in the final stages, said Ma, adding she hopes it will result in a funding announcement soon. “The next school will be Cloverley,” she said.
Sandi Thorson has two young children who attend Ridgeway, in kindergarten and Grade 2. She also wonders what will happen when Ridgeway and other neighbourhood schools hit their limit.
“It’s an awesome school,” she said. “But it’s very busy and very full.”
