Wednesday March 13, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC [Updated March 14, 2024]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Announcing the go-ahead for a small new 50-seat elementary school in Port Renfrew was considered significant enough to announce in the Hall of Honour at the BC Legislature yesterday.
Currently there are only about 14 students at the current Port Renfrew Elementary in the small remote community of Port Renfrew on mid-north Vancouver Island. But the current school is considered to be the most seismically-vulnerable of all schools in BC.
With construction to get underway soon toward an expected September 2025 opening, the seismically-reinforced replacement school comes at a cost of $12 million from the provincial capital budget.
The school is within Sooke School District 62 (SD62) which otherwise focuses its attention on their fast-growth population challenges within in Langford, Colwood and Sooke.
Severed from middle school plan:
A new middle school is apparently also still under discussion for Port Renfrew, with a federal funding request as part of the business plan for that building. The elementary school project was initially combined with the middle school idea, including a request to the federal Indigenous Relations ministry for funding to support that.
Yesterday’s announcement did not seek to mention the federal funding aspect or the middle school project. Those issues came up through media questions from Island Social Trends. We are awaiting a response from the Ministry of Education and Child Care as to the status of the federal funding request and the possibility of a new middle school in Port Renfrew.
The federal funding attempt was given a good shot, including support from then-Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health Carolyn Bennett and mention in the House of Commons in June 2023 by local MP Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford).
Seismic zone:
Port Renfrew is in a region of west/north Vancouver Island that is located within a significant seismic zone, with the near-certain likelihood of tsunami in the event of a major quake.
Schools across BC are often also used as emergency response centres as well as general community activities.
At the legislature:
The announcement about the elementary school capital expansion within Sooke School District 62 (SD62) was made on Tuesday in the Hall of Honour at the BC Legislature by Minister of Education and Child Care Rachna Singh and former SD62 Board Chair Ravi Parmar who is now the MLA for Langford-Juan de Fuca (and also recently became the Parliamentary Secretary for International Credentials). Politically-speaking, that was a way to also acknowledge Parmar’s role in ushering along SD62 issues at the provincial level.
Also addressing the media and various staff and board representatives of SD62 (past and present) was current board chair Amanda Dowhy. SD62 Superintendent Paul Block attended in the audience.
Current SD62 board trustees who accompanied Chair Dowhy were Russ Chipps, Christine Lervold, Trudy Spiller and Allison Watson (of those, Dowhy and Watson were elected from the SD62’s Milne’s Landing Zone — i.e. with voters in Juan de Fuca where the Port Renfrew school is located).
A two-way livestream of Port Renfrew Elementary principal Cory Meausette and his students at the current school played live as the announcement got started. The kids were pretty excited!
Serving the broader community:
A significant financial investment by the province in the remote fishing-tourism town of Port Renfrew on northwest Vancouver Island is an opportunity to also support facility requirements for the broader local community.
“I am so proud that it will provide students and the entire community a place to gather, learn, play and grow.”
This was the first week on the job for the new Chief of the Pacheedaht First Nation, Arliss Daniels, who also addressed the assembly of folks at today’s short media session.
“Our collaboration with the Pacheedaht Nation over the years has been instrumental in achieving this milestone, and we look forward to furthering our partnership as the school project progresses from plans to reality,” said Dowhy.
Port Renfrew is located with the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area of the Capital Regional District (CRD). JDFEA Director Al Wickheim attended the March 12 announcement.
Horgan-driven focus on SD62:
In the past six years SD62 has received about $270 million from the provincial government, politically driven by former Premier John Horgan who was MLA for Langford-Juan de Fuca during 2005-2023 (Premier 2017-2022), a mantle now handed to Parmar since his by-election win in summer 2023.
In the period since the NDP has led the provincial government about 2,660 new student spaces have been created in SD62 (2017-2022) which delivers public education to families in the fast-growing west shore area of Greater Victoria.
That scope of classroom space additions has included:
- 600 seats at Royal Bay Secondary in Colwood just a few years after the new school opened with 800 seats in 2015;
- the new PEXSISEN Elementary School in the Westhills area with 500 seats which opened in September 2022;
- the new Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School which opened in November 2022 at 74% capacity with 700 seats;
- the upcoming 480-seat new elementary school in South Langford set to open in September 2025;
- new modular classrooms coming to Ruth King Elementary in Langford and David Cameron Elementary in Colwood (190 at each school, for a total of 380 new seats) effective September 2024.
Minister Rachna Singh was hand-picked by Horgan to run in 2017 for the NDP, as told to Island Social Trends by Singh last year. MLA for Surrey-Green Timbers, Singh has first-hand experience of the challenges experienced in a fast-growing school district as both a parent and politician in Surrey.
Non-stop student population growth:
The SD62 student population has grown by about 300 to 500 new students each year for the past 10 years. An entire facility-planning, capital-strategy, and layer of district administration has grown within SD62 along with the needs to meet the population increase demands. Population increase projections have been nearly bang-on for most of those years, a significant data exercise led by now SD62 Superintendent Paul Block. District Principal of Capital Planning has been Windy Beadall.
Housing growth in the west shore (notably Langford and Colwood in recent years, as well as in Sooke) has been part of the Capital Regional District (CRD) regional growth strategy since 2003 (current plan adopted in 2018 and updated in 2021); it was originally a mechanism to help preserve the core areas of Greater Victoria (including Victoria, Oak Bay, Saanich and Esquimalt) in their current format while taking advantage of available land in the the west shore region for anticipated population growth.
Of the west shore municipalities with the CRD both Metchosin and Highlands have steadfastly remained rural.
It took a while for the SD62 school district to catch up with adequate classroom spaces. That has had as much to do with politics (previous BC Liberal government 2001-2017 only built schools once they saw population increases in place) as it has had to do with the cost and complexity of land purchase and facility construction (clearly a huge undertaking but not an impediment).
Ministry engagement:
“We are in constant touch with the school district,” Minister Singh told Island Social Trends after the formal announcement.
Singh has visited in SD62 schools many times now since becoming education minister in 2022 under Premier David Eby. She toured Royal Bay Secondary in January 2023, visited at Ruth King Elementary in October 2023 (to announce new pre-fab modular classrooms for Ruth King and David Cameron schools by September 2024), and just last week she was at Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School to announce a boost to the provincial Student and Family Affordability Fund.
One new elementary school per year:
Each year, SD62 needs the student seating capacity equivalent to one more elementary school per year. “We are trying to keep up with the pace,” said Minister Singh. “Districts are facing the pressure. We are committed to investing in our schools since 2017,” she told Island Social Trends.
Budget 2024 includes $3.75 billion for school capital projects over the next three years including new and expanded schools, seismic upgrades and replacements, and land purchases for future schools.
History reflected in the audience:
The political accomplishment of today’s new school announcement for such a small community was celebrated by VIPs going back many years. Former SD62 Superintendent Jim Cambridge (who retired from SD62 in 2018), and former SD62 trustee/vice-chair Bob Beckett (who served one term 2018-2022) were on hand for the announcement.
Also attending today was SD62 Secretary-Treasurer Harold Cull who has skillfully guided the budget and strategic aspects of achieving facility growth over many years, through a creative capital plan and some creative operational budget management.
Recently retired SD62 Superintendent Scott Stinson (in the top job 2018-2022) did not attend but was acknowledged by Parmar as being instrumental in the Port Renfrew school project.
Superintendent Block pleased with provincial support:
SD62 Superintendent Paul Block has been with SD62 for over 30 years, at least the last 10 years in senior district administration positions (associate superintendent, then deputy superintendent).
Block was pleased yesterday at the progress being made for capital projects and continued efforts to keep up with the demand for enough seats for the continually growing SD62 student population.
“I’ve never seen the level of support that we’re receiving right now from the provincial government,” said Block in a quick interview with Island Social Trends after the formal announcement. “We’ve been very fortunate,” said Block, referencing all the other challenges faced by school districts across the province.
“We’ve worked very hard on that relationship as well, and we’ve worked really hard to make sure that the provincial government understands the challenges that we have in the Sooke School District. I think we’re stepping up to the plate in every way possible. I really hope there’s more good news to come because we’re not done,” said Block who got rolling in the top position of SD62 Superintendent on January 1, 2024.
“We still have that challenge of growth but in today’s day and age with all the challenges our governments are facing I couldn’t be more thankful and grateful for the work that the Ministry of Education and the provincial government is doing for us,” said Block.
===== RELATED:
- SD62 internal refresh for 2024 (December 20, 2023)
- Classroom space slam dunk for SD62 (October 31, 2023)
- Indigenous name gifted to new elementary school in south Langford (August 14, 2023)
- SD62 ushering in Paul Block as their next superintendent starting 2024 (July 3, 2023)
- Federal pitch for SD62 Port Renfrew school funding (June 15, 2023)
- Seismic upgrades or more for SD62 school in Port Renfrew (March 31, 2023)
- New Langford middle school opens at 74% capacity (November 14, 2022)
- Alive with gardens and light at SD62’s new PEXSISEN Elementary (September 3, 2022)
- Construction for 600 more seats underway at Royal Bay Secondary (April 16, 2019)
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Island Social Trends Editor Mary P Brooke has been covering SD62 issues at the board and committee level since 2014.
Ms Brooke covered the COVID pandemic daily during 2020-2022 and in 2023 started reporting with the BC Legislative Press Gallery.
Mary Brooke raised her four children during the years where provincial politics had a negative impact on public education (notably the 2001-2016 period of cutbacks under the former BC Liberals). Her son and three daughters attended schools in SD61, SD62 and SD72.
Ms Brooke applied her awareness of SD62 and education issues during her SD62 trustee campaign in 2022, in particular supporting the rights of parents within public education.
Island Social Trends is published in Langford and serves an audience within the west shore area of Greater Victoria, the south Vancouver Island region, and province/nationwide on the broader issues. The online daily news posts are at IslandSocialTrends.ca and there is now a biweekly print/PDF edition available free within community and as PDF by paid Premium subscription.
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