Mark Pearmain, North Vancouver School District Superintendent
Board of Education North Vancouver School District Trustees
Christie Sacre, Jessica Stanley, Barry Forward, Cyndi Gerlach, Megan Higgins, Susan Skinner, Franci Stratton,
Mark Bernier, Minister of Education Province of British Columbia
We are writing regarding how to accommodate the new class size rules imposed in the restored language of the Collective Agreement. At Highlands Elementary, there is only one way to create new classroom spaces for the 2017/18 school year and that is through portables.
Our school is at capacity and it has been since it opened in 2009. Between the requirement for smaller class sizes and the addition of dense residential development in the catchment community, the demand for classroom space is not going away. Plans already exist for expansion of our school, which were to be implemented when demand required; it seems that time has come.
We do not support any decision, however temporary, that cannibalizes the important spaces of the school to create required classrooms. Unlike older schools, we do not have an art room, stage, multi-use room or second music room to spare. Our music room, library, LAC room and gym are in constant use and cannot be used as classrooms without significantly, and unacceptably compromising our children’s education. Our before and after school care portable is used by many families, to meet the growing demand of working families.
Highlands is a new school, designed tight for space, built with surplus capital realized by reducing the scope of construction. Reducing the scope of the school again is notacceptable and is counter to the stated mission to provide equal access to education for all.
To help you with your decision we are writing to let you know that portables in the short term and constructing the planned expansion in the near term is the only option. We will not sit quietly and watch important learning spaces be turned into classrooms at Highlands Elementary.
Signed,
Families of the Highlands Elementary School Community
