A group of Burke Mountain parents hopes the squeaky wheel gets the school.
Although Smiling Creek elementary is just months away from opening in the fast-growing area of northeast Coquitlam, parents whose children were unable to get in want another planned school, Sheffield elementary, built as soon as possible and are lobbying the province for funding.
“We’ve seen this time and time again: If we don’t push our agenda and make sure our voices are heard, we get ignored,” said Isabel Silvestre.
She recently sent a letter to Education Minister Rob Fleming and is urging other parents to do the same to send a message that another elementary school is needed on Burke.
“The lack of schools brings out a number of issues,” said Silvestre, whose son is in Grade 3 at Our Lady of Assumption school because there was no room in Leigh elementary, his neighbourhood school, and he was shut out from Smiling Creek for being out of catchment.
“I think it’s unfathomable that in a country like ours — where we are one of the top countries in education internationally… yet in B.C., we can’t get access to schools within our neighbourhood.”
In her letter to Fleming, Silvestre said parents lined up at 5 a.m. to register for Smiling Creek, only to be told they were not in the catchment, forcing parents to drive outside the community, causing daycare challenges and stress for those who don’t know where their kids will go to school while they wait for the cross-catchment process to conclude.
Silvestre, who moved to the area five years ago, contends there was lack of foresight to put in infrastructure that was needed for the growing population.
“We should have the social infrastructure in line with development,” she told The Tri-City News.
The urgency of the need is not lost on School District 43, which put Sheffield at the top of its capital plan last year and is fronting costs for the project development report and initial stages of design for the building, which is to be located at 3538 Sheffield Ave.
But Silvestre said she’s concerned that if the province doesn’t announce funding this year, parents will have to wait longer to get their children into a neighbourhood school even as new families move into the area.
Meanwhile, Burke Mountain parents are also awaiting an announcement of funding for a $70-million blended middle and high school so their children will be able to attend at least some of their school years in their neighbourhood.
