Thursday March 14, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC
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 earlier this week.
SD62 Superintendent Paul Block attended the school replacement funding announcement on March 12. The province is contributing $12 million from their capital budget.
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.
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.
Keeping up with student population growth:
Block has been with the school district for over 30 years, at least the last 10 years in senior district administration positions (including associate superintendent, then deputy superintendent).
He is pleased 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 but also attention to more focussed issues like the need to provide a safe school in Port Renfrew.
Provincial support:
School districts receive almost all of their funding from the provincial government (some operational funds can be raised through facility rentals and international student tuition fees). For capital expansion the funds come from the province.
“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 Port Renfrew on March 12. “We’ve been very fortunate,” said Block, referencing all the other challenges faced by school districts across the province.
Hard work at the SD62 level:
“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,” Superintendent Block on March 12.
“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,” he told Island Social Trends.
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 operations centres (EOC’s) 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.
===== RELATED:
- $12 million to build small new elementary school in Port Renfrew (March 13, 2024)
- 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.
===== ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS – be a digital subscriber =====
Bookmark the IslandSocialTrends.ca news portal and be a part of ongoing support for independent journalism! Don’t miss this analysis of local, regional and provincial news — add IslandSocialTrends.ca to your bookmarks (phone and desktop). Visiting the news portal is always free.
Help us keep the lights on! You can also support this Vancouver Island journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. For just $7.25+GST per month, you will receive by email the PDF of our biweekly print edition.
Support journalism that serves your community, by subscribing today.