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Next steps for Smiling Creek

Coquitlam city and School District 43 sign joint-use agreement
Smiling Creek
A joint-use agreement has been signed between School District 43 and Coquitlam, but funding to build the new elementary school for Burke Mountain hasn't yet been announced.

Plans are moving ahead for a new Smiling Creek elementary school in the growing community of Burke Mountain even though funding for the project hasn't yet been confirmed by the province.

Tuesday, the School District 43 board of education approved a joint-use agreement with the city of Coquitlam for the school and park site located at Queenston and Princeton avenues.

Ivano Cecchini, the district’s assistant secretary for facilities and planning, said he was unable to confirm funding in a call made to the province this week.

"I wasn't getting anything positive," Cecchi told Tri-City school trustees, but he said he was told that information passed on to the Ministry of Education by SD43 was "in order.”

Under the approved joint use agreement, the district will own the northern property and be responsible for funding and operating the school, which will be built to accommodate 430 students, with 19 classrooms, playground areas and a shared parking lot. Plans also include an enhanced gym, a shared multi-purpose room with kitchen, a classroom, a shared use meeting room and an exterior office for city use and an exterior washroom for park users.

The city, meanwhile, will own the southern property, containing the sports field, although the district will be able to use the field in exchange for the city using the building's shared spaces in the evenings. The city will also have access to the exterior washroom and office, and, when school is not in session, can book space.

Also this week, Coquitlam city council council passed first reading of a zoning amendment bylaw to change the property’s allowable use from from residential to institutional.