Wednesday August 27, 2025 | LANGFORD, BC [Posted at 2:03 pm | Latest update September 4, 2025]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
The newest school to open in Sooke School District SD62 is in the fast-growing area of south Langford, at 802 Latoria Road right next to the border of the fast-growing area of Royal Bay in Colwood.
Together, Langford and Colwood comprise a chunk of the west shore region that has been attracting new housing development for about 15 years now. Much of the area is seeing smaller and multi-density homes but many with families.
Hence the continual pressure of population growth on the school district that has in many ways led the province in new ideas for facilities growth, including collaboration with the Province and with municipalities as well as innovative approaches to expansion such as pre-fabricated classroom installations instead of portables.
Hosting the province’s media event today in the third floor commons area of SĆIȺNEW̱ SṮEȽIṮḴEȽ Elementary (aka referred to during development as the South Langford elementary school) was local MLA Ravi Parmar (Langford-Highlands).
Parmar was the SD62 board chair for almost 10 years. In that role he rode many of the waves of sorting out the impacts of population growth on schools.
MLAs at the school opening:
Accompanying Parmar from the province today at the podium were Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma, Education and Child Care Minister Lisa Beare (herself a former school trustee), local MLA Dana Lajeuenesse (Juan de Fuca-Malahat) in whose riding are five SD62 schools in Sooke, and Darlene Rotchford, MLA (Esquimalt-Colwood).
Also at the podium today were SD62 board chair Amanda Dowhy and SD62 trustee Russ Chipps who leads for the local Indigenous community.
“This project has taken a long time to get here,” said Minister Ma in recognizing the planning and work done to launch another SD62 school in the fast-growing west shore.
“The west shore has strong services, easy accessibility to the Greater Victoria and the rest of Vancouver Island, and access to stunning nature right in your back yard,” said Ma today.
She pointed out that a standalone Infrastructure Ministry can get things done faster and notes that there is public engagement on the Infrastructure Projects Act open to March 2026.
Community partners and leadership:
About 80 people attended this school opening from the education, construction, and municipal sectors. Several government staffers were there.
SD62 Superintendent Paul Block was there, as was Deputy Superintendent Monica Braniff, Secretary-Treasurer Brian Jonker, and HR Executive Director Fred Hibbs.
Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson attended as did Langford CAO Darren Kiedyk and Langford Director of Engineering and Public Works Kate Balzer, and Langford city councillors Kimberly Guiry and Mary Wagner. Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi attended.
Other SD62 trustees (from the Belmont / west shore zone of SD62) at today’s event were Cendra Beaton and Trudy Spiller.
Ron Coutre of the WestShore Developers Association attended; that organization was commended for their leadership in construction in the region.
Special thanks went to Kinetic Construction for keeping the project on budget and on time, and to the architects for their innovative new design.
Media in attendance today included reporters and photographers from local TV, print and digital news outlets.
About the school:
Today SĆIȺNEW̱ SṮEȽIṮḴEȽ Elementary Principal Camille McFarlane was enthusiastic about the new school as she took MLAs and others on a tour of several parts of the building. Vice-Principal Kristin Holland also attended.
The Indigenous name for the school was announced on the construction site in August 2023.
Construction completed is anticipated for the end of September 2025.
Some guests took their shot at the basketball hoop in the gym.
The new school is designed to accommodate 480 students in Grades K to 5 to help meet long-term enrolment needs. SD62 estimates a school population of 300 as the 2025-2026 school year gets underway in September. According to SD62, this new school does help ease up the enrolment pressures on three nearby elementary schools — Wishart, Sangster and Happy Valley — where certain grade levels are at capacity.
The four-level school has a leading-edge design with several asymmetrical aspects that seem to keep the energy of the building up and flowing, including wide open stairways. There’s a lot of glass for light and security sight lines. The commons area for Grades 2 and 3 has a range of seating types and a stationary bicycle.
But there are also small spaces with bookshelves for quiet time and smaller rooms for literacy support activities.
The gym is viewable from up above.
The washrooms have no doors and clear sight lines to washing areas.
The roof has solar panels. A few MLAs took a tour on the roof today.
There’s a sports field in the back, and two playgrounds — one out front for the child care age children, and another out back for older children.
School location:
SĆIȺNEW̱ SṮEȽIṮḴEȽ Elementary School serves both Langford and Colwood, situated at 802 Latoria Road across from Klahanie Drive.
Presently there is a significant amount of road construction in the area, with a detour from Happy Valley Road to Klahanie in order to reach the school from the Langford side.
Some, but less, construction is happening from the Colwood side of Latoria Road.
School bus travel will be unaffected during the remaining construction phase, says an SD62 spokesperson.
SD62 schools:
SD62 has schools in Langford, Colwood, Sooke and Metchosin, several of which have been expanded with modular additions as well as portables in recent years:
- 19 elementary schools
- 5 middle schools (another one coming in Langford soon)
- 3 secondary schools (another one coming in Langford soon)
Progress on opening more schools:
More than 3,000 new student seats are opening in BC this fall, in towns and cities across the province, said the Infrastructure minister today. [Separate article to come]
===== RELATED:
- Infrastructure Minister Ma says standalone ministry delivers more schools (September 4, 2025)
- Langford highlights investments in safe routes to school (September 1, 2025)
- SD62 says south Langford elementary school construction on track (May 14, 2024)
- Colwood Traffic: Latoria Blvd Oct 26 (October 25, 2023)
- Indigenous name gifted to new elementary school in south Langford (August 14, 2023)
- SD62 forging ahead without City support for shared sports field (March 14, 2023)
- NEWS SECTIONS: SD62 WEST SHORE | EDUCATION K-12 | LANGFORD