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Blended school for Burke Mountain proposed

Middle school and secondary students would be accommodated in new building by 2023, but parents not happy with timeline
Burke school site plan
This is the preliminary site plan for the secondary and middle schools for Burke Mountain. The new plan would have a blended school built to accommodate both middle and secondary students on the northwest corner (essentially the secondary school site), with the middle school built later when enrolment grows.

School District 43 wants to build a blended school to accommodate both middle and high school students in a single building to open on Burke Mountain in Coquitlam in 2023, ahead of the schedule for separate schools.
But the promise of an earlier opening date has raised the ire of some parents.

And SD43 is still a long way from securing funding for the building — estimated to cost $70 million — that would be located on land at David Avenue and Soball Street, and is using its own capital funds to get conceptual drawings and other work done, says board chair Kerri Palmer Isaak.

“We’re very very excited about this, it’s kind of an out-of-the-box solution,” she said, adding that the blended school idea was forwarded to the Ministry of Education last March for approval and was given the OK.

The next step is for the district to submit the project in the spring as part of its 2018 capital plan, then wait for a funding announcement, Palmer Isaak told The Tri-City News.

She didn’t know how many students would be attending the school upon opening and in what configuration, but did confirm the district anticipates having enough students for a blended school by ’23 — although not enough to fill separate middle and high schools.

Burke school timeline
A timeline for school construction in the area. - SD43 graphic

Eventually, when enrolment grows, a separate middle school would be built on the site, leaving the original structure for secondary students.

When it opens, however, the blended building — built on the northwest corner of the site — would be divided with separate entrances, staggered start times and other accommodations for students.

By constructing a single building to accommodate students over seven grades, Burke Mountain would get the schools two to three years earlier than projected, she said, reflecting the most recent timeline on the district’s website that projects a mid-2025 middle school opening and mid-’26 opening for a secondary school.

But parent Alon Weinberger says the school district is taking credit for fast-tracking the project when it’s just sticking to its original time sequence.

Pointing to a meeting in June 2015 when parents were told a middle school would open in 2023 and a secondary school in ’24, Weinberger said the blended school is a good idea but should be built sooner because there are already enough students — or soon will be — to fill it based on the latest census numbers.

“What they’ve done, they’ve pulled a Sears liquidation sale against us, this is insulting to our community that they don’t think we keep track of this,” said Weinberger, who spoke at a meeting Thursday when the school district revealed its plans.

He and parent Mery Naveh recently submitted a petition to the school district calling for a middle school to open in 2020.

“We do have over 1,000 kids, census numbers that can easily justify a current school in one building,” he said.

Blended
A conceptual drawing of how a blended school would accommodate middle and secondary students. - SD43 graphic

The idea of a blended school to accommodate students until enrolment grows for two buildings is appealing, Weinberger said this week, but the timeline is disappointing.

Palmer Isaak said she is confident in the school district’s own projections, noting that approximately 10% of students will go to private school and 20% will enrol in programs of choice, bringing down enrolment numbers. But she also promised the district would review its numbers and plans given parent frustrations expressed at Thursday’s meeting.

“I understand and I feel their frustration there. There’s no way we can get them [schools] built fast enough.”

The blended school would essentially be a modified version of the secondary school planned for the northwest corner of the site, with a dividing line down the middle and separate entrances, a conceptual diagram shows. Eventually, when enrolment grows, a middle school would be built on the site, as originally planned. There would also be a lit turf sports field, track, park space and other park amenities and facilities. The city of Coquitlam has earmarked $7.5 million for the park project, with a $5 million contribution from Wesbild and $2.5 million in other funding.