Local MLA Judy Darcy brought fellow MLA Rob Fleming for a tour of the New Westminster Secondary School to allow the NDP’s education critic to see first-hand why the aging school is long overdue for a replacement.
Before they even entered the 60-plus-year-old building, Fleming was struck by the school’s peeling paint, rotten window frames and dated-pale yellow stucco.
“Rob said he’d never seen such a worn-down looking school,” Darcy said.
“That includes schools in Northern B.C., where you have hard-weather wear,” added Fleming, MLA for Victoria-Swan Lake.
New Westminster Secondary School principal Phil Cookson led the tour for Darcy and Fleming. They were joined by the district’s director of operations, Doug Templeton, board of education chair Jonina Campbell and trustee MaryAnn Mortensen, along with members of the local media.
Much of the tour centred around the various programs, including trades, international baccalaureate and fine arts, the school offers, and its educational successes, despite being housed in the run-down building.
Responding to a recent Record article where the Minister of Education noted that the school district would have to demonstrate a “business case” for a replacement high school in the city, Cookson said he didn’t view public education along those lines.
“It’s not a business, so a business case is a little difficult for us to demonstrate,” he said.
The principal noted that there is just one high school in New Westminster, making it different than some other districts in that it offers a variety of programs under one roof. It also means that students from all types of socio-economic backgrounds all funnel through the single school.
“Every kid in the district winds up in this school,” Cookson said. “It knits a whole community together.”
Cookson started the tour saying it would be easy for him to show the “awful” parts of the school building, but instead he chose to spend the hour-long showing talking about the many positive aspects of the high school.
“We are in the business of making things work,” Cookson said, summing up staff’s attitude toward the old school.
Fleming added that “school culture is always more important.”
But Campbell, who recently met with Minister of Education Peter Fassbender in Victoria to talk about the high-school replacement project, noted that the district still needs a new school.
“Just because we are doing really good, doesn’t mean we don’t deserve a new school,” she said.
One of the major issues for the district is the fact that the old school doesn’t have wifi for students to use their wireless devices – less than ideal conditions for 21st Century learning expectations. It’s something the district hasn’t invested in for the high school because it is awaiting an announcement for funding to build a new school. A new school would be built with wifi capabilities.
The district’s saga to get a new school built has been ongoing for more than a decade. One of the major issues is the fact that it was built over an old cemetery. As well, parts of the site – where the skatepark is currently located – have poor soil conditions and would be costly to build on.
When the current school is torn down, the Pearson wing of the school on the northwest corner will become a passive park as it is designated a cemetery. The other areas of the school will fall under the Heritage Conservation Act, which means they can build on the site under certain conditions.
Templeton told the tourgoers that renovating the old school would cost more than actually replacing it. There is support for the project, in principle, from the province, Templeton said. Now it’s just a matter of money.
“We are at the point now where we are trying to put that to the ministry’s capital people … to hopefully get it approved,” Templeton said.
Darcy said she hears from parents every single day about the need for a new school.
Fleming echoed her call for answers from the province as to when a new school will built.
“I think what I’ve seen here today is just the tremendous opportunities to be able to provide certainty and commitment to a timeline and capital funding to build a modern 21st century facility for New Westminster,” Fleming said. “It will be one of the province’s largest high schools, and we’ve clearly seen with size comes interesting advantages in terms of diversity of programming offered here – everything from trades to advanced studies for gifted students to special needs education. The fine arts sector here is flourishing.”
As for the man who can help provide some of that certainty, so far Fassbender has yet to take Campbell up on her offer to tour the school.
