CITY 5
Car meet controversy
NEWS 9
MP wants new housing strategy
COMMUNITY 11
Baby crows reunited FOR THE BEST LOCAL
COVERAGE WEDNESDAY JUNE 22, 2016
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
GO TO PAGE 19
There’s more at Burnabynow.com
ON YOUR MARKS:
The annual wifecarrying contest at the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival was a hit again this year. Runners carry their partner on their back through an obstacle course, and the fastest to finish wins the wife’s weight in beer. This couple is employing the Estonian method, a popular carrying position. Wife-carrying as a competitive sport originated in Finland. More photos on page 3 and at www. burnabynow.com PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
EDUCATION
Alpha getting $27.2 mil makeover By Cornelia Naylor
cnaylor@burnabynow.com
Parts of Alpha Secondary School could meet the wrecking ball in a matter of weeks with the start of a $27.2-million partial replacement of the school. School officials and Burnaby North MLA Richard Lee were at Alpha Mon-
day morning for the official ground breaking on the project and to unveil design plans. The project, scheduled for completion in fall 2018, involves the replacement of two classroom wings and seismic upgrades to the rest of the school. The district had originally hoped to see 60-year-
old Alpha replaced entirely but was told by the province funding wasn’t available. “It’s not a new school, but given the limitations of the budget, it’s the best possible outcome,” principal Paul Fester told the NOW. The project will increase the school’s student capacity from 1,025 to 1,100. Besides a new classroom
block, the school will also get a new science “super lab” – six classrooms that will open up onto a large lab for experiments – and a new “learning commons” to replace the current library. Unlike a traditional library, the learning commons will have fixed shelves only along the walls, while all the shelves in the mid-
dle of the space will be on wheels. “You can actually re-create the space for whatever kind of learning opportunities you need,” Fester said. “I’m not even going to predict what we’re going to do in it because we want it to be very flexible, so – especially as the new curriculum’s coming up – we
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can go ahead and use it in whichever way our teachers can imagine.” The project will also bring much needed technological upgrades to the school, including a proper fibre-optic backbone and improved Wi-Fi. In the next two to four Continued on page 8
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