Two new elementary schools on North Vancouver school district's wish list

This story has been amended since first posting to reflect that current plans for the school on the Cloverley site no longer include French Immersion. A French Immersion track was included in earlier plans for the school.

The North Vancouver School District has not just one, but two new elementary schools on its wish list.

The school district has already received encouraging signs from the province on one of its requests – to build a new school for 535 students on the site of the former Cloverley Elementary school at the corner of Cloverley Street and Hendry Avenue.

No money has been allocated for that project yet, but the school district is in the process of submitting detailed plans to the government – the final step before an approval is usually granted.

Three years ago, the cost of construction was estimated at $21.6 million.

The school district has now also added a second elementary school in the City of North Vancouver as a top priority on its capital wish list.

That school – with a capacity of 465 students – comes with an estimated project cost of $38.9 million, as well as land costs of up to $30 million.

The new second new school is part of a five-year capital plan approved by trustees in September.

While the Cloverley site sits near the border of the city and district, the school district is looking for the second new school site in the lower or central Lonsdale area, to take enrolment pressures off nearby schools, said director of facilities Jim McKenzie.

No site has been identified yet. “It’s kind of a big jigsaw puzzle,” said schools superintendent Mark Pearmain. “It’s a fairly long view out in terms of what we need.”

The school district is also awaiting final word from the province on a request to expand Lynn Valley elementary by about 100 students.

Pearmain told trustees that the fast pace of construction on the new Handsworth Secondary means they are now anticipating moving into the new school in February 2022 – seven months ahead of schedule.

Other projects identified on the district’s wish list include an expansion of Carson Graham Secondary to enroll 300 more students at an approximate cost of almost $19.7 million, and an expansion of Queensbury Elementary from 265 students to a 460-student capacity at a cost of $8.2 million. Westview, Highlands and Larson are also on the list of future expansions, with each of the schools earmarked to increase by about 100 students, costing between $5.8 million and $6.7 million per school.

And eventual replacement of Lynnmour Elementary with a larger 510-student school, a replacement of Seymour Heights with a larger 585-student school and a replacement of Ross Road with a 535-student school are also on the long-range plan, with cost estimates ranging from $37.7 million to $42.8 million.

Each year, school districts submit capital plans to the Ministry of Education, which then chooses which projects to fund and decides how much money school districts will receive.